Tipton gets Pinon Canyon funding ban reinstated
By PETER ROPER | proper@chieftain.com | Posted: Monday, May 23, 2011 6:19 pmRep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., has convinced the chairman of a crucial House appropriations subcommittee to restore the annual funding ban that has blocked the Army from spending any money to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site for the past four years.
Rep. John Culverson, R-Texas, is expected to restore the funding ban to the 2012 military construction budget when it is considered by the full House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. Culverson chairs the military construction subcommittee and his backing of the Pinon Canyon moratorium almost certainly guarantees the ban will remain in place.
For Tipton, the new GOP congressman in the 3rd Congressional District, the funding ban has been a critical issue because it has been the centerpiece of the opposition to the Army's controversial efforts to expand the 235,000-acre training site northeast of Trinidad.
Tipton inherited the ban from former Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., and ranchers opposed to the Army's efforts were gravely concerned last week when they learned that the military construction subcommittee had not retained it in the 2012 military construction budget they drafted a week ago. The ban has been in place since 2008.
Tipton was under close scrutiny by those ranchers because he'd promised to defend the funding ban until some kind of long-term agreement could be reached between the Army and the ranching community over Pinon Canyon.
