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Moseley defends privatized housing

Gen. T. Michael Moseley defended privatized housing and the Air Force’s dominion over jointly operated bases at a Capitol Hill meeting Thursday with U.S. House members.

A House Appropriations subcommittee picked through the chief of staff’s $5.2 billion construction budget for next year in search of possible savings.

Nearly $1 billion would go to Congress-approved base closure and realignment initiatives. But Moseley, responding to committee questions, said he doesn’t want the cost savings to erode air bases’ quality. He calls them “weapons systems in and of themselves.”

More than 44,000 housing units are now privatized — 72 percent of all Air Force housing — and the budget pushes to privatize more. Still, Moseley resisted a suggestion by Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., to follow the Navy’s lead by privatizing dorms.

Turning them over to outsiders, Moseley said, could sacrifice the Air Force’s control over dorm life.

Subcommittee members also said efficiency measures to have multiple military branches operating on one base need clarity.

Fighting and training jointly is an “inherent good,” Moseley said. But he drew a distinction between Air Force bases — which send jets directly into combat and back — and other military installations that only deploy ships and soldiers for the long haul.

“On a [domestic] Air Force base, we fight from the base,” Moseley said. Those bases “can’t have two bosses trying to decide what the priorities are.”

Congress must approve a final budget before the 2008 fiscal year starts in October.