Spending bill includes funding for northern border security center at Selfridge

Washington ― A draft government spending bill released early Thursday includes the first funding for a new center to coordinate northern border security, with its likely home at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill published overnight includes $3 million for the center to be agency's "centralized coordination center for operations, domain awareness, information sharing, intelligence, training and stakeholder engagement" with state, local and international governmental partners along the northern border, according to an explanatory document accompanying the spending bill.

It adopts language proposed in legislation by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, that is written in such a way that only Selfridge would qualify as the site of the center because of the various DHS components and personnel that it must be situated with, according to a Peters aide.

The center has to be located along the northern border at the same site as an existing U.S. Border Patrol sector headquarters, the U.S. Border Patrol Northern Border Coordination Center, an Air and Marine operations branch of the Customs & Border Protection and a U.S. Coast Guard air station, according to the document text.

The center is meant to serve as a "coordination mechanism" for the implementation, evaluation and updating of the northern border strategy, as a training site and a testing ground for border security technology, as well as to support drone aircraft systems operating along the border.

The $3 million in funding, secured by Peters as chair the Senate homeland security committee, will be directed to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to start standing up operations at the center.

Peters intends to still push to pass the legislation authorizing the new center, which was adopted by his committee in July but has not passed the full Senate or the House, a spokeswoman said Thursday. That step would further expand operations at the center.

"The federal funding I secured to establish a Northern Border Coordination Center will help the Department of Homeland Security prioritize the needs of the Northern Border and build on the critical role Selfridge Air National Guard Base plays in protecting our nation," Peters said in a statement.

"I’ll continue working to ensure that Michigan and assets like Selfridge remain at the forefront of our nation’s homeland and national security missions.”

The new center could be a significant benefit for Selfridge, whose future is unsettled with the expected retirement of the A-10 squadron there, starting in 2026.

The A-10 mission has long served as the backbone of the Harrison Township base, which is over 100 years old and supports an estimated 5,000 jobs in the community, according to state figures.

In January, the U.S. Air Force announced it had chosen Selfridge to host a new squadron of 12 KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers as the military looks to retire the base's aging KC-135 Stratotankers, pending the results of a planned environmental impact analysis in 2025. The KC-46As are projected to start arriving in 2029.

Air Force officials have projected that jobs will still be lost in the retirement of the A-10s at Selfridge that would occur incrementally from 2026 through 2029, resulting in the net loss of approximately 300 part-time personnel positions and about 25 full-time jobs, accounting for the KC-46A jobs that will be added.

The KC-135s at Selfridge are expected to begin divestment in 2027, the Air Force has said.

Michigan lawmakers say they're continuing to push for a follow-on fighter mission to replace the A-10s at Selfridge.

The homeland security appropriations bill also includes $20 million toward procurement of a second heavy icebreaker for the Great Lakes — less than the $55 million that had been requested, according to Peters' office.

The bill also helps the Department of Homeland Security continue to prepare for final construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge by providing $1 million to boost capacity to support investigations resulting from the use of non-intrusive inspection systems that will be deployed at the new span across the Detroit River to Canada.

Language in the bill also requires Customs and Border Protection to report on plans for completion of the Blue Water Bridge Plaza expansion and steps taken in the last year toward completion of the project.

The House is expected to vote on the broader, $1.2 trillion spending package Friday, with the Senate taking up the legislation after that. Failure to pass the measure could lead to a partial government shutdown for several federal agencies this weekend.

The package funds the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor and others.

mburke@detroitnews.com