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Friday, August 01, 2008
Lamborn pulls Pinon Canyon amendment
Amendment would have helped Army buy Pinon Canyon land.
By PETER ROPER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
August 01, 2008 03:42 am The fight over the Army's plan to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site was expected to erupt again in the U.S. House today, but Colorado Springs Rep. Doug Lamborn ultimately withdrew his amendment to allow the Army to begin buying land around the 238,000-acre training range northeast of Trinidad.
The House is considering the 2009 military construction budget today - legislation that opponents of the Pinon Canyon expansion used last year to place a one-year ban on the Army spending any money on the controversial project.
That ban already is in the legislation for 2009 as well, courtesy of Colorado Reps. John Salazar and Marilyn Musgrave, and Lamborn had hoped to refashion it to give the Army permission to buy land from "willing sellers."
Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican, is in a three-way GOP primary this month and has been criticized sharply by challengers Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn for not stopping the Musgrave-Salazar ban a year ago, when the House voted 383-34 to support the ban.
That vote was less a reflection on Lamborn, however, than it was of the highly motivated coalition of ranchers and other critics who won support in the Colorado General Assembly for their opposition to the expansion.
Salazar, a Democrat whose 3rd Congressional District includes Pinon Canyon, was primed to lead the opposition today, but his staff said the Democratic leadership on the House Appropriations Committee had given some assurances that Lamborn's amendment would not be accepted if offered.
Lamborn's staff confirmed Thursday night that he would not offer the amendment today.
Two weeks ago, the Army announced it no longer was seeking 414,000 additional acres around Pinon Canyon, but was willing to settle for 100,000 acres along the southern border of the training range.
Army officials also said they were speeding up the acquisition process and wanted to seek out willing sellers, despite the Musgrave-Salazar ban on spending any money on controversial expansion. Salazar and and Rep. Mark Udall, the Boulder Democrat who is running for the Senate, sent a letter to Lamborn on Thursday asking him to withdraw his amendment. They noted that the Army report scaling back its land request was delivered to Congress only two weeks ago and that the Government Accountability Office is reviewing the Army's report, as ordered by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.
Also, the letter said the Army should not be allowed to speed up its land acquisition without doing the environmental studies and public hearings required by law.
"The amendment that you have proposed - to allow the Army to use funds to purchase lands from willing sellers - is premature at best," the letter said.
Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate have said it is unlikely that any 2009 budget bills will be passed this year, except for the Defense Department's budget, including the military construction portion. One reason is that President Bush vetoed nearly every budget bill the Democratic-controlled Congress approved during the past year.
On the Senate side, Ken Salazar backed the one-year ban last year and led the Senate in narrowly approving it over Allard's objections. That fight may also repeat itself when the Senate takes up the 2009 military construction budget. Salazar has said he intends to extend the funding ban for another year, pending the results of the GAO review of the Army's plans.
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