WASHINGTON—Colorado’s senators will decide this week whether to back a provision in a House-passed military spending bill that aims to block the Army’s expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.
The Senate is expected to spend most of the week on the bill, which funds construction for the military and Veterans Affairs. It includes $500 millions in projects for Colorado.
Colorado Reps. John Salazar, a Democrat, and Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican, inserted wording the bill to stop the Army from spending any money next year on its plans to expand the 368-square-mile maneuver site in southeast Colorado to about 1,000.
Both the state’s senators are signaling that they might propose a compromise rather than backing the House approach, but it’s still unclear what they are planning to do.
Republican Sen. Wayne Allard hopes a “win-win situation” can be reached, his spokesman Steve Wymer said Tuesday. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, also wants to find “a way forward,” said his spokeswoman Stephanie Valencia.
The Army has said it needs more training space to accommodate the arrival of 10,000 troops being transferred to Fort Carson. It has said it would be too expensive to ship the soldiers elsewhere for training, and that it hopes to get the acreage from willing sellers.
But ranchers neighboring the site still fear the Army will force them to give up their land.
Both senators spent some of their August break meeting with ranchers and other property owners about the Army’s plans.
Ken Salazar said in early August that he wanted to introduce legislation to block the Army from taking land against the wishes of owners.
Allard has been more sympathetic about the Army’s need to grow, although he said last week that he might propose an amendment that would temporarily prevent it from condemning property for the expansion.
