The next step will be appropriation of the money.
Earlier this year, the office of Sen. Jon Husted said the U.S. Senate had budgeted funding to address Wright-Patterson’s aging primary runway in its then-draft defense budget.
It’s unclear when runway funds may be appropriated. The House passed the NDAA bill Wednesday evening, and it has a date in the Senate, likely next week.
A release from U.S. Rep. Mike Turner’s office on “major wins” for Wright-Patterson in the compromise version of the NDAA did not mention funding for the runway.
“Sen. Husted is looking at all options for appropriated funding for the runway and will continue to work to secure investments for WPAFB,” a representative of Husted told this outlet Wednesday.
In an interview with the Dayton Daily News in August, Husted recalled voices urging attention to Wright-Patt’s runway while he served as Ohio’s lieutenant governor. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to serve in the Senate in January, after J.D. Vance, the previous holder of that seat, was elected vice president as Donald Trump’s running mate in November 2024.
They said, ‘Hey, they’re not going to have a runway out there before long,” Husted said at that time. “It’s deteriorating, and if you don’t have a flight line, how can you be in the Air Force?”
Wright-Patterson at the moment has a single flying mission, the 445th Airlift Wing. Its runway probably would not be considered a high-traffic runway, Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive of the Dayton Development Coalition, has told the Dayton Daily News.
A continuing resolution funding the federal government until Jan. 30 is in force. The current resolution ended a recent record 43-day lapse in funding of the federal government. Hundreds of thousands of Department of Defense civilians were furloughed, as were more than 8,000 Wright-Patterson civilians. Priorities such as shipbuilding and research languished during the shutdown.
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