The $516 billion sweeping government spending bill before Congress provides $129 million for child care centers at 16 military installations, including locations where there have been heavy deployments of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House passed the bill Monday night with accompanying funding for the war in Afghanistan. The Senate was to consider the bill next and possibly attach funding for the war in Iraq.
In addition to the child care money, the bill provides $454.4 million for military construction projects and a $6.6 billion increase to the Veterans Affairs' 2007 budget for a total $43.1 billion largely for medical care.
President Bush had requested only three child development centers, but Congress added 13 others, said Rep. Chet Edwards, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with oversight for military construction and VA spending.
The money would provide child care for about 3,500 children of all ages.
News of the funding was a nice surprise for the National Military Family Association, a group that advocates for military families and had been expecting only two new centers. The additional centers were added by Edwards during conference committee, his office said.
"This is incredible news for military families because these child care spaces are so desperately needed," said Jessica Perdew, deputy director of government relations for the association. "One of the valuable benefits of being part of the military is the child care center."
A Defense Department survey reported a need for 35,000 child care spaces this year, she said.
Edwards, D-Waco, said top noncommissioned officers have told Congress for several years that child care is a No. 1 quality of life need. "But it never makes it through the Pentagon bureaucracy. We decided to move this to the top of the list where it ought to be," Edwards said.
Five installations that are home to some of the most heavily deployed units and have large waiting lists for child care are in line for funding for a child development center. They include Fort Bragg with $8.7 million; Fort Lewis, Wash., $10.6 million; Fort Campbell, Ky., $8.6 million and Fort Drum, N.Y., $10.6 million.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, ranking Republican on the Senate subcommittee overseeing VA and construction snagged $7.4 million for child care needs atFort Hood, Texas.
"When I have traveled overseas to visit with our troops, they want to know that their families are taken care of and when they call home and there is a problem with their wife or child that weighs on them because they feel helpless," said Hutchison, R-Texas.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, had secured authorization for the Fort Hood child development center.
Funding also will be provided for a child care center at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the Marine base with the largest child care backlog.
Bush had requested funding for three centers at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, Fort Riley in Kansas and Fort Worth Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base in Texas. The bill provides $11.6 million, $8.5 million and $4.9 million respectively for those installations.
Edwards said he added $6.5 million for a center at Fort Bliss in El Paso.
The locations of the other centers and the amount of money proposed for them are Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, $2 million; Fort Benning, Ga., $3.7 million; Scott Air Force Base, Ill., $8.2 million; Fort Polk, La., $6.1 million; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., $7 million; and Charleston Air Force Base, $11 million.