Taking the MC out of NMCI

A key House committee has approved legislation that would take the Marine Corps out of much of the Navy Marine Corps Intranet program.

Under a provision of the fiscal 2002 Defense authorization bill approved Aug. 2 by the House Armed Services Committee, the Marines would be removed from NMCI.

"Due to lengthy program delays and significant questions about the Navy's funding and budgetary strategy for NMCI, the committee recommends releasing the Marine Corps from the program, excluding aviation depots and naval shipyards," the committee said.

In conjunction with those cuts, the panel cut the Bush administration's fiscal 2002 NMCI budget request by $120 million, down to $527 million.

The provision was not requested by the Marine Corps, the staff member said, but came from the committee itself. It is not known who submitted the provision.

The move surprised NMCI officials.

"Clearly, there must be some issues [for] Congress [to] believe that this is not a good idea for the Marines," said Capt. Chris Christopher, Navy Department deputy program executive officer for information technology. But he said the Navy remains confident NMCI will include the Marines.

A Marine Corps statement Aug. 3 said, "The Marine Corps remains in support of the secretary of the Navy's NMCI initiative and is working with the Navy staff to develop information to satisfy the committee's concerns and move the program forward."