Navy SEAL ‘performance center’ request denied by Congress for second year

The Pentagon has been denied funding for the second year for “Human Performance Centers” it believes will protect its investment in Navy SEALs.

Congress opted not to grant the Pentagon $11 million for a facility that would be used by the Naval Special Warfare Development Group last year, and then denied a similar request this year for a center at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, The Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday.

“Gyms are self-service, one-dimensional facilities staffed with enough people to maintain and manage the facility,” Lt. Cmdr. Li Cohen, a spokeswoman for U.S. Special Operations Command told the newspaper. “A Human Performance Center is equipped and staffed with specialists from different fields who take a holistic approach by combining physical and psychological performance with nutrition and rehabilitative conditioning to ensure special operators reach and maintain peak levels of physical and mental performance.”

Lt. Cmdr. Cohen told the newspaper that the Pentagon spends roughly $500,000 over five years to train just one special operator, and that a single facility consolidating all of a SEAL’s training and rehabilitation needs into one place, would be a sound financial investment.

The officer added that having to shuttle special operators to different facilities is not an efficient use of their time.