Congress passed a short-term spending bill today that includes one longer-term project for Alaska: The bill allocates $200 million to build a fourth field of underground missile silos at Fort Greely, near Fairbanks.
The Trump administration requested the expansion at Fort Greely last month. It’s part of a larger campaign to beef up the nation’s missile defenses to counter the North Korean threat.
The new field is intended to house 20 additional missile interceptors. That would bring the total number of ground-based interceptors there to 60. The funding is available until 2022.
The silo field was also included in the annual defense policy bill Congress passed.
Today’s short-term spending bill avoids a government shutdown, but it only continues funding for most programs until January 19. Congress needs to pass another spending bill before then. Now though, lawmakers are leaving the Capitol for Christmas break.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
