U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has again expressed his support for Illinois' Scott Air Force Base’s bid to become the home of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).
The senator, who spoke openly about the matter earlier in the week, has now filed comments with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“I write to express my strong support for St. Clair County as the new home for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) West Facilities Modernization, also known as NGA West,” Durbin wrote. “Locating it in close proximity to Scott Air Force Base best supports NGA’s mission and organizational efficiency while also providing tremendous certainty and value to the taxpayer.”
As the ranking member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Durbin has also met with NGA Director Robert Cardillo and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper.
The agency, expected to make its decision by the next spring, will examine the finalists sites’ costs, merits and environmental qualities. Scott Air Force Base, the only finalist owned by a public entity — St. Clair County — can additionally offer 200 more acres to the NGA for future expansion.
The NGA collects, classifies and analyzes human activity around the world. It develops map-based imagery data that U.S. intelligence utilizes.
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