Fed spending bill passed, $2.4 billion appropriated to Tyndall for rebuild

News Herald (Panama City, FL)

Dec. 23--PANAMA CITY -- With President Donald Trump signing into law the $1.4 trillion federal spending bill Friday, Tyndall Air Force Base has secured all of the necessary funding to rebuild.

The $2.4 billion appropriated to Tyndall for construction will be available over the next five years, which means more flexibility to negotiate with contractors, according to Congressman Neal Dunn (R-Panama City).

"Military construction funding is allowed to be held for up to five years at a time, and if you appropriate the money on the front end, you can make a better contract with your contractors," said Dunn, who has been instrumental in introducing and supporting bills related to recovery from Hurricane Michael. "The contractors now have the guarantee the money is there and they'll be on the job this year, next year, (and so on). It really saves a huge amount of money to do it that way."

Alongside the funding to rebuild, the base also secured additional funds for the procurement of 28 F-35s. Also, about $240 million was appropriated to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) located on the beach and $70 million to the Panama City station of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Outside of military-related funding, provisions for disaster-related tax relief, authored by Dunn, was also a part of the federal spending bill. Individuals can take advantage of the provision in the upcoming filing season, as well as for years to come.

Dunn noted he had submitted the disaster tax relief bill back in November 2018 so that tax relief would be available as soon as possible following Hurricane Michael.

"I dropped that bill in 2018 and they just picked that up word for word (this year) and put it in this appropriations (package)," he said. "That's really outstanding."

Other appropriations Dunn mentioned that impact Bay County include: $1.5 billion in agriculture funds initially made available for 2017 disasters; $400 million in grants for 2018-2019 disasters, and $31 million to support the revised timeline for the Coast Guard's offshore patrol cutter, which will fill a capability gap between the Coast Guard's national security cutters and its fast response cutters..

As a continued advocate for veterans and veterans' health, the congressman also touted the additional lines of support for veterans' health research funding included in the new federal budget.

President Trump signed off on the spending bill on Dec. 18, the day the House of Representatives voted in favor of two articles of impeachment.

"All of this is set in the backdrop of impeachment," Dunn said of the new federal budget. "In fact, it's the impeachment that propelled this forward. As (the Democrats) got deeper and deeper in the impeachment, their polls were going upside down all across the country. And so, they realized they had to do something good for the country."

Regarding impeachment, Dun does not believe the articles approved by the House -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- will go to trial in the U.S. Senate.

"I think everybody knows ... there will be no impeachment; matter of fact, there will be no trial," he said.

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