New Jersey Congressmen Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) and Frank LoBiondo (R-Vineland) today introduced legislation that would significantly improve security checks on contractors and help ensure better quality of contract work on New Jersey’s seven military installations.

    The Military Base Security Act comes after six months of work by the Congressmen to improve security at the installations.  The legislation was prompted by last spring’s arrest of more than 20 undocumented workers at McGuire Air Force Base.  Additional arrests of undocumented employees took place at additional installations, including a Wyoming base that is the home of the nation’s largest unit of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).

    "The Military Base Security Act seeks to solve the current security problems by combining more stringent security checks with a contracting policy known as ‘Best Value Contracting’ (BVC) that allows officials to consider the entire application package – not just price – when making an award,” Smith said.

    “The arrests at McGuire and elsewhere provided a very troubling indication that our military installations are not adequately protected from possible infiltration by terrorists,” Smith added.

    “Base security is a real concern to us,” Saxton said. “We need to find ways to improve security, and this legislation is a good start. In New Jersey, we currently have more than a dozen construction projects ongoing on our military installations. On McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix alone, we have over $150 million in construction underway, plus another $30 million at Lakehurst. We must take the necessary precautions to maintain secure military installations. That includes sensible procedures to identify everyone working on the bases.”

    “Best Value Contracting will help us improve security on bases and also enhance the overall quality of construction projects ensuring that our bases and soldiers are kept safe and our taxpayers get the best value for their dollar,” Smith added.  “Best value provides incentives and rewards for firms that keep track of their employees and use certified, highly-skilled labor on what are often very sophisticated and complicated construction projects.”

    Specifically, the base security bill would authorize a pilot program in New Jersey and other locations at which the Pentagon must institute a comprehensive contractor and employee security screening initiative.

    When evaluating projects, contractors that provide stringent background checks on their employees, as well as comprehensive project staffing plans that detail the skills of the workers, would be awarded additional points.  After two years of implementation, the Department of Defense would be required to submit a report reviewing the pilot and making recommendations for nationwide implementation. 

    This past summer, the three Congressmen convened a day-long series of meetings with top military contracting officials from the Army, Air Force, and Navy to discuss contracting procedures used in each service branch.  The Congressmen were also joined at the meetings by several representatives from statewide building trade unions, who voiced their concerns about existing base contracting policies and offered suggestions for moving forward.