Wednesday, July 17, 2002
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Wednesday, July 17, 2002 |
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Collins Amendment Blocks Funding For Army South Move WASHINGTON In a complete reversal of promised procedure, the U.S. Army announcement of plans to move their Southern Command (USARSO) from Fort Buchannan, Puerto Rico to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, demonstrated a blatant disregard by the Army in their agreement to conduct an open process in selection of a suitable home in the continental United States. In meetings with the Army in February, Members of Congress were assured that the Army would conduct a two-phase selection process which included open dialogue and community input. One of the locations under consideration for the home of the command was Fort Benning, Columbus, Ga. After a site visit to Benning in October of 2001, the Army decided the base was unsuitable for a command of USARSO's size. Last March, the Secretary of the Army decided to change the composition of USARSO, significantly reducing its size and purpose. Following that decision, no follow-up visits were made to Benning to see if it would fit with the modified Southern Command. In meetings with the Army on Tuesday of last week, Brigadier General Karl Eikenberry told Rep. Mac Collins that given the change of initial criteria and reduction of size of the command, Fort Benning would be revisited to see if suitable headquarters could be found. That visit is planned for this week. Meanwhile, USARSO announced to the House Appropriations Committee that a final decision had been made to move the command to Fort Sam Houston. To prevent a move of the Army without the promised open process, which includes fair and appropriate consideration of Fort Benning, Rep. Collins offered an identical amendment to both the FY 2003 Military Appropriations Bill (H.R. 5010) and the FY 2003 Military Construction Appropriations Bill (H.R. 5011) which will block any funding from those bills from being used to move USARSO to a location within the continental United States. The amendments were offered with strong support from the chairmen of both of the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, David Hobson (OH) and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Jerry Lewis (CA). In both cases, the amendments were passed by a voice vote. "I have always put our national security and our soldiers' training above politics. I have never been a firm believer in telling the Army, or any military service for that matter, what is the best means for them to obtain their objectives," Collins said. "However, I am tasked by my constituents to make sure that we are spending their hard-earned tax dollars wisely. "Without my knowledge, the process went from an 'open' process to a 'closed' process last week. This 'closed' process then led to an uneven playing field for those communities around the country to compete for U.S. Army South including Columbus, Georgia, home to Fort Benning," said Collins. "Much to my surprise, we received a memorandum stating that U.S. Army South would be relocated to Fort Sam Houston, and that any other action would compromise the readiness of U.S. Army South," said Chairman Hobson. "This memorandum forces me to assume that the process is less than fair and transparent." "As I said earlier this week, when any agency of the U.S. government tells Congress they are going to do something, we expect them to do it," said Collins.
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