69 



Appendix ni 



S«vvrmi A^Dciea Are Amrmimt HJtD 



FaeiUuc*' FnadiBf Need* aod UUcioor 



30.7 million square feet between 1953 and 1962 to 14.4 million square feet 

 between 1983 and 1992. >aH, for example, built little new laboratory space 

 in the past 10 years in contrast to earlier years. Similju-ly, epa facilities 

 managers told us that, in recent years, the Office of Management and 

 Budget (OMB) has not approved any epa laboratory construction projects; 

 the Congress has, however, appropriated funding for new construction. 



The facilities managers noted that the process for obtaining funding and 

 either renovatii\g existing laboratory facilities or constructing new ones is 

 long — typically taking about 7 to 10 years from proposal to completion. 

 While this process includes procuring services and designing and 

 constructing the facility, a substantial portion of total time reflects the 

 budgetary review process. Laboratory projects compete for limited funds 

 among themselves, with other agency construction needs, and with other 

 agencies funded in the same appropriations bill. Projects are reviewed 

 within the agency and by omb before being submitted to the Congress. 

 During this process, a number of lower-priority laboratory projects will be 

 dropped, and the amount of funding made available for a project may be 

 reduced because of competing priorities. 



In November 1989, Wright Laboratory issued a facilities modernization 

 report that identified 28 military construction projects for funding between 

 fiscal years 1992 and 2010 with an estimated total cost of $591 nullioa 

 However, each project must be submitted to Civil Elngineering, which 

 annually develops and prioritizes Wright-Patterson Air Force Base's 

 military construction projects. This list is submitted for review and 

 approval to the Base Commander, then to the Office of the Secretary of the 

 Air Force, and then to omb for inclusion in txDD's budget Over the past 10 

 years, Wright Laboratory has averaged less than one project every 2 years, 

 and the average cost per project has been less than $7 million. Wright 

 Laboratory facilities managers noted that laboratory projects compete at 

 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with housing and other quality-of-life 

 needs for Air Force families as well as facilities for the Aeronautical 

 Systems Center, which recently was established at Wright-Patterson. 



To illustrate the problems in obtaining new laboratory space, Wright 

 Laboratory facilities and research managers cited the construction of a 

 m^or new addition to its Avionics laboratory, initially proposed around 

 1980 at a cost of $35 nullion. Wright Laboratory was advised to break the 

 $35 million project into three construction phases to increase its funding 

 likelihood. Phase I, approved in fiscal year 1992. began in March 1993: 

 phase 2 is included in dod's 1994 budget; and phase 3 was pushed back to 



