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Chairman: DOD FY2025 spend plan funds Youngstown Air Reserve fire station after witness plea
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Summary
A witness told the House appropriations subcommittee that Youngstown Air Force Reserve Station (YARS) needs a new fire station to protect C-130J assets and 1,500 employees; the chairman announced the Department of Defense FY2025 spend plan includes funding for the fire station.
A witness appearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs urged the panel to press the Defense Department to release funds for a replacement fire station at Youngstown Air Force Reserve Station (YARS), and the committee chairman reported that the DOD’s fiscal 2025 spend plan includes funding for the project.
The witness described YARS as an employment hub that serves northeast Ohio and surrounding regions and said the base is home to the C-130 family of aircraft — including three current C-130Js and plans for nine to 10 total — and more than 1,500 employees. The witness said the C-130J is “about a hundred million dollars” apiece.
Why it matters: The witness told the subcommittee that the base’s existing fire station is dilapidated and “really isn't fit” to support firefighting and emergency response for high-value aircraft and that a new station is needed to protect both personnel and roughly “a billion dollars of assets” expected to be located at the installation as more aircraft arrive.
Funding history and outcome: The witness said the project received Department of Defense priority status in fiscal 2023 and that Congress provided design funding in 2024. The Pentagon had requested $25,000,000 to implement the fire station project, the witness said, and asked the committee to “jar that money free.” During the hearing the chairman said, “the fire station you just spoke about is fully funded” in the DOD FY2025 spend plan.
Members of the subcommittee and the ranking member noted the difficulties created when Congress operates under continuing resolutions rather than enacted full-year appropriations. Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz told the witness the committee insisted on receiving the DOD spend plan because CRs leave project prioritization to the executive branch; she said, “If we had enacted full year bills, then this conversation wouldn't even have been necessary.”
Discussion versus action: The witness requested congressional help and urged the committee to press the Pentagon; the chairman’s announcement that the DOD spend plan includes the fire station was presented as information from the department, not as the result of a committee vote during the hearing.
Quotations in context: The witness said, “These planes are about a hundred million dollars each.” The chairman told the witness, “The fire station you just spoke about is fully funded.” Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz said the spend plan demonstrates why full-year appropriations are important.
Next steps: Committee members said they would continue their appropriations work ahead of the FY2025/FY2026 cycle; the witness offered to work with the panel and local leaders to advance the project.
