In my testimony on March 12, 1998 before the Subcommittee on Military Construction, I stressed the importance of housing privatization as a means of providing our military families with quality housing cheaper and faster than would be possible through traditional military construction (MILCON). Since that time, I have been working to ensure that we provide you with the Services plans for privatization of military housing. As a follow-on to my previous letters of March 23 and April 6, 1998, I am forwarding the timelines for key milestones, from initial Congressional notification through project award for all FY 99 and prior projects, which were developed by the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps working with the Housing Revitalization Support Office (Enclosure 1). The Navy has determined its privatization sites (Enclosure 2), and we are continuing to work closely with the Department of the Navy to present you with a complete set of Navy plans with achievable milestones. I will provide the Navy's timelines when this review is completed. Another item that I promised to follow up on is the revised budget process. As I previously noted, we are working on a revised budget process for FY 00/01. In the meantime, projects identified for privatization will be funded through use of the transfer authority granted under the privatization act to achieve maximum leverage of these appropriated funds. As noted in my testimony, the tools that Congress provided - which we are now using in this five year test period – provide the means to leverage our resources. With these tools, we can get a minimum of 3:1 leveraging of our dollars. In many projects, we've found the leverage rate is to be significantly higher. I will continue to keep you posted as we move forward with this program. I look forward to working with you and the other members of the Subcommittee to improve the program and accelerate our ability to provide our uniformed personnel and their families with the high quality of housing they deserve. Sincerely, Joe B Goch John B. Goodman Deputy Under Secretary (Industrial Affairs and Installations) cc: Honorable W.G. Hefner Ranking Democrat |