[CPEO-MEF] Bishop is worried about Hill

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Utah
DESERET MORNING NEWS
Bishop is worried about Hill
He's taking steps to protect base from federal closures
By Lee Davidson
October 15, 2003

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress fully expect the Defense Department to
try to cut about a quarter of its bases in the upcoming 2005
base-closure round — and that might threaten the huge Hill Air Force
Base, says Rep. Rob Bishop.

"We've always talked about a 25 percent reduction, so we've heard that
for a while. It's always been a large concern for us," said Bishop,
R-Utah, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

But the Los Angeles Times disclosed those planned deep cuts publicly on
Tuesday in a copyrighted story.

It said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is planning to save money by
seeking to close at least 100 of the nation's 425 military bases in 2005
— more than were closed in the four previous rounds of base closures
combined.

Bishop expressed grave concerns about such numbers. "I personally think
those cuts are too deep. . . . Our military has been taking cut after
cut, and it's a dangerous world. I fear some of our cuts are already too
deep."

He said they potentially threaten Hill, which houses one of the nation's
three large repair-and-maintenance air logistics centers and is one of
Utah's largest employers. So Bishop said he and other members of the
Utah delegation have been working to help improve Hill's chances of
survival.

That includes winning a hearing on Thursday before the House Resources
Committee on a bill Bishop is pushing to help prevent storage of nuclear
waste silos on the Goshute Skull Valley Reservation. He says such silos
could hinder flight operations at Hill's nearby Utah Test and Training
Range.

Bishop worries flight patterns could be altered to avoid crashes into
the nuclear waste — which in turn could jeopardize survival of the range
and Hill itself. His bill would create some wilderness areas that would
prevent building a railroad needed to transport waste to the Goshute
reservation.

"It would also stop encroachment on the test and training range,"
ensuring flights could continue over formal wilderness and wilderness
study areas there, and that the military could fly in equipment to
service radar towers and other structures already there, he said.

"Having the largest usable land bombing range in the nation tied to an
air base is significant and unique" and improves Hill's chances to
survive, Bishop said.

This article can be viewed at:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,515038839,00.html

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