BRAC funds may be moved to Iraq war bill

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, told a crowd of Huntsville business leaders Monday that he's confident $3 billion for BRAC relocation work cut from the military construction budget can be restored, "but not without a fight."

Shelby spoke to about 1,000 Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce members at the chamber's annual Washington Update breakfast at the Von Braun Center.

"I believe we're going to get BRAC back on track," Shelby said. "But we're going to have to fight for that money."

Shelby said after his speech that he's hopeful the money to build roads and office buildings on Redstone to handle the new military commands heading to Huntsville by 2011 can be placed in the Iraq war funding bill. That bill is supposed to come before the House and Senate in the next few weeks.

If that fails, Shelby said, he'll try to get the money included in a supplemental appropriation bill.

So far, no construction deadlines have been missed, but if the $3 billion isn't restored this year, BRAC moves could be delayed, he said. Redstone Arsenal needs about $500 million to accommodate 4,500 jobs expected to come along with the Army Materiel Command, Space & Missile Defense Command and Missile Defense Agency, along with a recruiting command and the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, which manages foreign military sales.

Shelby also talked about the Iraq war effort, saying he's told Gen. David Petraeus, the top general in Iraq, that he'd like to give him 100,000 more troops to stabilize the country "if we had them."

Shelby has recently been critical of President Bush's handling of the war since the successful invasion four years ago. He said it should be apparent in the next 6 months if the surge of 20,000 more troops is working.

In the meantime, he said, he refuses to support congressional resolutions like the one passed last week symbolically rejecting the president's strategy of stepping up military presence in Iraq.

"I'm not supporting any resolution that in any way is detrimental" to the morale of American troops, Shelby said.