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Appropriations Bill Includes $17.5M Facility At McConnell Air Force Base

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A new $17.5 million training facility at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita is included in a 2018 budget proposal working its way through Congress.

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas authored an appropriations bill that supports housing, infrastructure and facilities for U.S. military forces.

One of the projects is to build a combat arms training facility at McConnell Air Force Base.

“Construction of a new combat arms facility at McConnell Air Force Base will enable the airmen to train and increase readiness to make certain they are fully equipped to continue carrying out critical missions around the world in defense of our nation,” Moran said in a news release.

Moran is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.

Military construction funding overall is increased by $1.8 billion over the current level. The bill also provides increased funding for veterans’ health care and benefits.

“This bill provides funds to prevent veteran suicide, address opioid addiction nationwide, increase rural access to healthcare, eliminate the claims backlog and support innovative medical research," Moran said. "We propose increased oversight of the Veterans Health Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent cost overruns for facility construction and improve accountability.”

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill last week. It still needs to go before the full Senate.

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.