Case Announces $403 Million For Red Hill In U.S. House Fiscal Year 2022 Continuing Resolution

The Immediate Funding Will Go To Restoring Safe Drinking Water and Implementing the State of Hawaii's Defueling Order

News Release from Office of Rep Ed Case, Feb 7, 2022

Washington, DC, February 7, 2022

(Washington, DC) - U.S. Congressman Ed Case (Hawai‘i-01) today announced that the U.S. House of Representatives has included $403 million to address drinking water contamination at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in its proposed Fiscal Year 2022 federal funding continuing resolution introduced today and expected to be voted on by the full House tomorrow.

H.R. 6617 will extend all current federal discretionary funding through March 11th while the House and Senate work to complete the full appropriations process for the current fiscal year expiring September 30th of this year. It is expected to pass both the House and the Senate and be signed by the President this week.

“It is highly unusual to include new funding in such a continuing resolution and is reserved for truly urgent matters that cannot await the normal appropriations process,” said Case, a member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee responsible for all federal discretionary funding.

“This initiative to include desperately-needed Red Hill funding was led by Senator Schatz, who negotiated the funding request with the executive branch and his Senate colleagues. I contributed to securing agreement within the U.S. House and our Appropriations Committee, where all federal appropriations must originate.”

The $403 million is provided in three portions of the continuing resolution:

·        $250 million to address current drinking water contamination resulting from the Red Hill leak,

·        $100 million to implement the State of Hawaii’s emergency order to defuel Red Hill, and

·        $53 million in existing general operational funding now directed specifically to Red Hill.

“These amounts are immediately appropriated on enactment of the continuing resolution,” said Case. “We are pursuing further funding in our overall spending bill for current Fiscal Year 2022, as well as for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2023 and beyond.”

A section-by-section summary is here.

The full text of the legislation is here.

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Schatz Secures $100 Million To Defuel Red Hill

Schatz’s Red Hill Funding Provision Included In Must-Pass Appropriations Bill; Schatz Working To Secure Additional Funding For Defueling

News Release from Office of Sen Brian Schatz, Feb 7, 2022

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, secured $100 million in new federal funding to cover the cost of defueling the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and direct the Department of Defense to comply with the State of Hawai‘i’s emergency public health order. Schatz worked closely with bipartisan leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to include the funding provision in a critical three-week spending bill required to pass Congress to avoid a government shutdown.

“This bill funds defueling, and it establishes Congress’s position on Red Hill: the DoD must defuel and follow the state’s order immediately,” said Senator Schatz. “We still have more work to do, but we are making good progress to protect our water and get this right.”

The new federal money represents the first round of possible funding to defuel Red Hill. Schatz is continuing to work with senior leaders in the Biden Administration and the Senate Appropriations Committee to secure additional funding in the president’s annual budget request and a much larger appropriations package expected to be taken up by Congress next month.

The full bill text of Schatz’s funding measure included in the appropriations bill follows:

In addition to amounts otherwise provided by this Act, there is appropriated to the Department of Defense $100,000,000, for an additional amount for fiscal year 2022, to remain available until expended, for transfer only to accounts under the headings ‘Operation and Maintenance’, ‘Procurement’, ‘Research, Development, Test and Evaluation’, and ‘Defense Working Capital Funds’, for the Secretary of Defense to conduct activities in compliance with the State of Hawai‘i Department of Health Order 21-UST-EA-02, signed December 6, 2021, related to the removal of fuel from and improvement of infrastructure at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility: Provided, That the transfer authority provided in this subsection is in addition to any other transfer authority available to the Department of Defense: Provided further, That amounts provided in this subsection shall not be available for transfer, obligation, or expenditure until the Secretary of Defense briefs the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate regarding the recommendations of the third-party assessment of the operations and system integrity of the Red Hill facility and the Department’s own analysis regarding the distribution of fuel reserves for operations in the Pacific theater, as well as other activities recommended by the third-party assessment or Departmental analysis: Provided further, That not less than 15 days prior to any transfer of funds pursuant to this section, the Secretary of Defense shall notify the congressional defense committees of the details of any such transfer: Provided further, That not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2022 and every 30 days thereafter through fiscal year 2023, the Secretary of Defense shall submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate, setting forth all categories and amounts of obligations and expenditures made under the authority provided by this subsection.

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SA: Sen. Brian Schatz secures $100M in federal funding to drain Red Hill fuel facility 

HNN: Military families sickened by Navy water demand action on Capitol Hill