Lawmakers pressed Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville about the Army\u2019s slim fiscal year 2021 budget request for barracks construction and renovation during a Tuesday meeting of the House Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said the Army is \u201cnever going to do $10 billion in 10 years\u201d unless the service requests more funding for barracks overhauls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston unveiled a barracks overhaul plan last year, publicly committing the force to spending $9.6 billion by fiscal 2030 in order to eliminate substandard buildings. The initiative has long been<\/a> one of Grinston\u2019s top priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur goal is, by 2030, we are not going to have any Q4 or Q3 barracks in the United States Army,\u201d Grinston said during the Association of the United States Army conference in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But is the money there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army\u2019s fiscal year 2021 budget request has the service taking a $3.6 billion funding cut<\/a> overall, and senior leaders have emphasized that they\u2019ve had to make significant cuts in order to protect the service\u2019s prized modernization projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Military construction \u2014 including barracks projects \u2014 faced deep spending reductions compared to the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have done everything we can to protect [our] modernization priorities,\u201d said McConville. \u201cThere\u2019s other things that are not going to get funded that we would like to do. We have challenges with barracks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t