[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 64 (Monday, May 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3265-H3266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CLOSURE OF CANNON AIR FORCE BASE AN ENORMOUS MISTAKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, Friday the 13th unfortunately 
lived up to its ominous reputation when this administration and 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of the Department of Defense announced that 
they were closing Cannon Air Force Base in Eastern New Mexico. They 
announced that Cannon was closing and all 2,800 employees would be 
moved to other areas.
  I can tell you one thing; our Congressional delegation, all the 
Democrats and all the Republicans, along with our Governor, Governor 
Richardson, are united to fight this, because we believe this is an 
ill-advised decision, an ill-considered decision and a wrongheaded 
move. I just want to talk today about a couple of the reasons why this 
is ill-considered.
  First of all, there is the issue of encroachment. When you have an 
Air Force base, you do not want residential areas nor industrial areas 
nearby. Of the 56 Air Force bases in this country, this is one of the 
best in terms of the encroachment issue. The local communities have 
worked very closely and formed a committee to try to make sure that 
this Air Force base was not encroached upon. There has been a robust 
buffer around this base for years and years.
  Secondly, there is the issue for our airmen and women of practicing 
and training in supersonic air space. We have initiated in New Mexico 
something called the New Mexico Training

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Range Initiative. It will be approved in October by the FAA and the Air 
Force. What that training initiative is going to do is make sure that 
as those pilots get off the ground, within a matter of minutes, they 
can train in supersonic air space. This is not true anyplace else in 
the country. For many, many pilots, they must fly 2 to 3 hours in order 
to get to a training area.
  At Cannon Air Force Base, there are nearby bombing ranges, there is 
training, there is going to be this access to supersonic air space, 
which is enormously important, and they will be able to train 
immediately and not have to travel those long distances. That fact was 
not even considered by the Department of Defense because their cut-off 
date was December of 2004, so we are going to put that fact before the 
commission.
  The third issue is what is called the military value and mission of 
this particular base. This is a top-notch base. It is an exceptional 
base. We have spent as a country $53 million over the last 6 or 7 years 
improving the towers, improving the runways, improving and enhancing 
the fire-fighting capability on the base and increasing base housing so 
that the base is in the kind of shape to make sure that our airmen and 
women that train there are ready to go into battle.
  To close, this is a bad decision. Our Congressional delegation and 
Governor are united. We are going to persuade that base closing 
commission that this was not the right decision for the country.
  Madam Speaker, Friday the 13th was a day that unfortunately lived up 
to its ominous reputation when the Department of Defense (DoD) released 
its Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations. In what I and 
the entire New Mexico Congressional Delegation believe is an enormous 
mistake, the Secretary of Defense included Cannon Air Force Base on its 
list of bases recommended for closure.
  The BRAC process was established over a decade ago following the 
collapse of the Soviet Union as a means to realign or close military 
installations that are believed to be no longer needed for our Nation's 
defense. There have been BRAC rounds in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995. 
This year's BRAC round, however, was expected to be one of the largest 
as Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld pledged to shrink the number of 
military installations in the United States by as much as 25 percent. 
Although Secretary Rumsfeld recently acknowledged that the BRAC round 
would be less extensive than earlier thought, DoD still recommended 
closing 33 bases, including Cannon.
  This is just the beginning of our fight to save Cannon. The list of 
recommendations submitted by the DoD to the BRAC Commission is only the 
first stage of a lengthy process. The next step is the Commission must 
submit its list of recommendations to President Bush on September 8th. 
The President will then either approve or disapprove the 
recommendations made by the BRAC Commission and submit to Congress. 
Congress will then have an up-or-down vote on the recommendations. 
Until September 8th, however, I will work with the entire Congressional 
Delegation, Governor Richardson, and the Clovis and Portales 
Communities to fight to get Cannon off the list of recommended 
closures.
  A central argument we will make to the commissioners is the issue of 
``range encroachment.'' It is the process whereby a military base is 
progressively hemmed in by urban growth, competition for air space, and 
other factors. Such a development can detract from a base's 
desirability, and thus make it a target for future closure and 
realignment in the BRAC round. Cannon has two long runways, excellent 
airspace, and bombing ranges with no encroachment issues.
  Additionally, the Department of Defense did not take into account the 
New Mexico Training Range Initiative as part of its analysis of 
Cannon's military value. Although the Initiative has yet to be fully 
approved, it is expected to be by October of this year. The Training 
Range Initiative will allow training at supersonic speeds, only further 
adding to the exceptional capabilities offered by Cannon Air Force 
Base. It is further evidence of the DoD's shortsightedness that they 
failed to take into account this valuable initiative.
  Cannon Air Force Base is a critical component of our Nation's 
defense. It is also equally, if not more, important to the communities 
of Clovis and Portales and the entire State of New Mexico. There are 
several months to fight the DoD's recommendation and I plan to do so 
vigilantly side-by-side with you, the other members of the 
Congressional Delegation, and Governor Richardson to show the BRAC 
Commissioners just how valuable Cannon, Clovis, and Portales are to our 
Nation.

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