Washington — Sen. Ken Salazar will try this evening to pass legislation blocking the Army from expanding its Piñon Canyon training site for one year.
Salazar, a Democrat, will offer an amendment identical to one that passed in the House earlier this year, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan and Salazar’s brother, Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa.
The Musgrave-Salazar amendment bans the Army from using any of its funding for the expansion. That restricts the military from proceeding with an environmental-impact study.
Salazar said he decided to back the House amendment after reviewing the military’s Base Realignment and Closure report on the move of 10,000 soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas to Fort Carson. That report said that Fort Carson “has sufficient capacity to support these units.”
The Army wants to acquire 400,000 acres in southern Colorado to train growing troops from Fort Carson. The Army said it needs the land to accommodate a high-tech Army that has weapons that fly farther and faster than ever.
“What has changed between January 2005 and today, two years later,” Salazar said. “What is it that now requires the Army to go from a position where they had sufficient training capacity to one where 400,000 additional acres are now needed?”
A vote on the amendment is expected this evening.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar, in a separate military authorization bill also will require the Army to detail why it needs additional land.
The two will also offer an amendment barring the Army from using the government’s condemnation powers to acquire land. Both senators visited farmers and other landowners in the area, who pushed for more than just blocking the Army from using eminent domain.
Sen. Salazar’s support is crucial to keep the amendment in the spending bill.
However, it must still survive a conference committee combining the House and Senate versions. Some members of that conference committee are likely to be lawmakers from the House Appropriations Committee, which wrote the bill, and most of them voted against the Salazar-Musgrave amendment in the House.
