By Meagan Villaneda
Military bases, including Utah”s Hill Air Force Base, are current targets for future military closures, which Utah officials are determined to prevent.
Hill Air Force Base is located in Utah”s 1st congressional district under Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. Bishop currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee and said without Hill Air Force Base, militants will be forced to leave the state and transfer to other military bases.
Hill Air Force Base also brings in a large surplus of revenue for the state of Utah each year and is one of Utah”s largest employers. If its base were to close, Utah”s economy could feel the effects from the closure.
“What we need to work on now is getting government officials to realize just how important Hill really is to Utah,” said Scott Parker, Bishop”s chief of staff. “Hill employs many men and women within the 1st district, and many will lose their jobs if the base were to close.”
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is developing a new military strategy and plans to close unneeded bases in order to produce an increase in revenue for the national military.
The Base Realignment and Closure legislation passed by Congress in 1988 and took part in closing 97 major bases in the United States. Rumsfeld said additional closures will save billions of dollars and will be better spent to ensure military men and women have the equipment and the training they need.
“In order for Hill to remain open we have devised a bill that will hopefully benefit the base,” Parker said.
Bishop presented the Utah Test Range Protection Act last Thursday, Oct. 16, to the House Resources committee, which designates a total of 106,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands on and near the Cedar Mountains as formal wilderness.
This bill is compatible with Bishop”s concern for nuclear waste coming to Utah”s western desert lands. The nuclear waste could alter pilot flight patterns and could endanger the survival of Utah Test and Training Range as well as the base itself. Bishop”s bill would create wilderness areas and prevent the building of a railroad needed to transport nuclear waste to the western desert areas opening the area for military flights.
The bill addresses the need for continued military emergency access, over flights and training activities affecting existing wilderness areas in the West Desert of Utah underneath the Military Operation Area. It would ensure military pilots could continue their flights over formal wilderness study areas.
“This bill takes a small, but important, step forward towards establishing a framework whereby future wilderness legislation can be discussed and acted upon in a cooperative and collaborative fashion,” said Bishop in his statement to the House Resources Committee.
