U.S. Congress to cut budget for Marines` transfer from Okinawa to Guam+

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 Kyodo -
The U.S. Congress has reached an agreement to sharply slash the fiscal 2011
budget for transferring the Marine Corps' troops from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam,
congressional sources said Thursday.
The administration of President Barack Obama had proposed about $452 million
(38 billion yen) in transfer costs for that fiscal year starting on Oct. 1,
2010.
Congress has agreed to cut the amount by about 70 percent to some $132 million
due to a delay in work to develop infrastructure on Guam, the sources said.
The Defense Department has already acknowledged that the transfer of the
Marines from Okinawa to Guam could be delayed beyond the current target of 2014
because of a shortage of water, sewage and electric power facilities on Guam, a
U.S. territory in the Pacific.
One of the sources said that Congress has come to the conclusion that the
budget for the transfer of the Marines could not be enforced due to a delay in
infrastructure development work on Guam even if the legislature approved the
administration's budget proposal.
The Marines' planned move to Guam is deeply linked with the relocation of the
Marines' Futenma air station from a densely populated quarter in Ginowan,
Okinawa Prefecture, to a less populated coastal area in Nago, also Okinawa.
In Japan, the Futenma base's relocation has hit a snag due to strong opposition
from local residents and governments in Okinawa.
Congress will cut the administration's budget requests for construction work at
Andersen air force base and at related facilities in the Finegayan district. It
will only accept $132 million for several other works and for planning and
designing costs.
The United States' defense budget consists of a defense authorization bill,
which sets the framework of spending, and an appropriations bill, which covers
details of spending.
Both bills are currently in the final stage of deliberations in both houses of
Congress -- the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Three of four related committees of both houses have sharply cut the Marines'
transfer budget and passed them.
In May 2006, Japan and the United States agreed on a road map for realignment
of U.S. forces in Japan, featuring a plan to build V-shaped runways in a
coastal area of Camp Schwab stretching across Nago and the neighboring village
of Ginoza to relocate the Futenma base's functions by 2014.
The two countries also agreed to transfer 8,000 Okinawa-based Marines and their
9,000 dependents to Guam, also by 2014.
Japan will bear some $6.09 billion, including loans, of the Marines' transfer
costs while the United States will cover $4.18 billion.
After a change of power in Japan from the Liberal Democratic Party to the
Democratic Party of Japan in 2009, the new Japanese government reopened talks
with the United States to see if the Futenma base could be relocated outside of
Okinawa.
But the two countries finally reached a fresh agreement in May 2010 that
basically endorsed the 2006 pact to move the facility within Okinawa.
==Kyodo