The $1.1 trillion spending bill contains the same provisions in the defense policy bill to protect McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst from cutbacks.
WASHINGTON -- Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, saved from reductions in the defense policy bill signed into law last month, will receive additional protection in the $1.1 trillion government spending bill to be enacted by Congress this week.
Legislation funding the government through Sept. 30 contains the same provisions as the National Defense Authorization Act, which established defense policy for the current fiscal year.
Those provisions prevent the Pentagon from both transferring or retiring the KC-10 refueling tanker planes now stationed at the base, and from creating a new Base Realignment and Closure Commission to look at shutting down military facilities.
"We now have double protection,'' said U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-3rd Dist.), whose district includes the joint base. "There's no authority to retire the KC-10s or do a (Base Realignment and Closure Commission) and there's no funding to do either."
The spending bill also made permanent a program providing health care to 9/11 first responders and blocked longer trucks from transversing New Jersey highways.
MacArthur and other New Jersey officials had been concerned that Defense Department officials, looking for ways to save money, would target the joint base.
A member of the House Armed Services Committee, MacArthur teamed up with fellow New Jersey freshman and panel member Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.) to insert a provision in the defense policy bill preventing the Pentagon from moving the KC-10s, thus reducing the base's mission.
He also enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that writes the annual Pentagon funding bill.
"You never know which path is going to lead to success," MacArthur said. "I went down two parallel paths. I was fortunate. I got both provisions into both bills."
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook