Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Panel renews Pinon Canyon funding ban 
By PETER ROPER
John Salazar
Betsy Markey
Rep. John Salazar sponsors amendment to continue moratorium.
By PETER ROPER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Two years ago, it took a dramatic vote of the full House of Representatives to approve Colorado Rep. John Salazar's amendment blocking the Army from spending any money in 2008 on the proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.
Since then, the tide of support in Congress for Salazar and the ranchers opposing the expansion has swollen to where the House Appropriations Committee now includes the funding ban in the annual Defense Department budget without opposition. That's what happened last summer and again on Tuesday, when the three-term Democrat renewed his annual funding ban in the 2010 Defense Department financing act.
"We put the amendment in again without opposition," Salazar confirmed Tuesday after the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs passed its section of the annual Pentagon budget. Salazar now sits on that committee, having joined the appropriations panel this year. Pinon Canyon is in Salazar's 3rd Congressional District.
Having the funding ban added in the subcommittee "mark up" - with full approval of its chairman, Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas - means it would take a successful amendment on the House floor to erase Salazar's ban. It is highly unlikely that House Democratic leaders would allow such an amendment to even be offered.
But that's what Salazar and then-Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., did two years ago in getting the full House to accept that first moratorium on Pinon Canyon. With Musgrave working the Republican aisles and Salazar the Democratic side, the House voted 383-35 to add the ban to the 2008 defense budget.
Musgrave was defeated for re-election by Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., last November, but Markey has made every effort to maintain the same energetic opposition to any Pinon Canyon expansion. Markey's 4th Congressional District includes the Eastern Plains to the east of Pinon Canyon.
She is working with Salazar this year in pushing for a comprehensive ban on any expansion of the 238,000-acre training area in the future.
On Tuesday, Markey quickly sent out a statement affirming her support for the vote in the military construction committee. "Preserving the ban on funding for the Pinon Canyon expansion sends a strong message of support for private property rights in our state," she said.
Army officials argue they need to expand Pinon Canyon to support the growing number of troops based at Fort Carson. They also have argued they can use money from other budget accounts to acquire more land at Pinon Canyon, but Colorado lawmakers reacted harshly in March at the news the Army was attempting to lease land despite the funding ban. Salazar, who had moved to the powerful House appropriations panel by then, said he would use his new committee position to block any expansion not supported by the ranchers in Las Animas County.
proper@chieftain.com
Since then, the tide of support in Congress for Salazar and the ranchers opposing the expansion has swollen to where the House Appropriations Committee now includes the funding ban in the annual Defense Department budget without opposition. That's what happened last summer and again on Tuesday, when the three-term Democrat renewed his annual funding ban in the 2010 Defense Department financing act.
"We put the amendment in again without opposition," Salazar confirmed Tuesday after the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs passed its section of the annual Pentagon budget. Salazar now sits on that committee, having joined the appropriations panel this year. Pinon Canyon is in Salazar's 3rd Congressional District.
Having the funding ban added in the subcommittee "mark up" - with full approval of its chairman, Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas - means it would take a successful amendment on the House floor to erase Salazar's ban. It is highly unlikely that House Democratic leaders would allow such an amendment to even be offered.
But that's what Salazar and then-Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., did two years ago in getting the full House to accept that first moratorium on Pinon Canyon. With Musgrave working the Republican aisles and Salazar the Democratic side, the House voted 383-35 to add the ban to the 2008 defense budget.
Musgrave was defeated for re-election by Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., last November, but Markey has made every effort to maintain the same energetic opposition to any Pinon Canyon expansion. Markey's 4th Congressional District includes the Eastern Plains to the east of Pinon Canyon.
She is working with Salazar this year in pushing for a comprehensive ban on any expansion of the 238,000-acre training area in the future.
On Tuesday, Markey quickly sent out a statement affirming her support for the vote in the military construction committee. "Preserving the ban on funding for the Pinon Canyon expansion sends a strong message of support for private property rights in our state," she said.
Army officials argue they need to expand Pinon Canyon to support the growing number of troops based at Fort Carson. They also have argued they can use money from other budget accounts to acquire more land at Pinon Canyon, but Colorado lawmakers reacted harshly in March at the news the Army was attempting to lease land despite the funding ban. Salazar, who had moved to the powerful House appropriations panel by then, said he would use his new committee position to block any expansion not supported by the ranchers in Las Animas County.
proper@chieftain.com
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