| Vieques Range Replacement Plan Approved
Secretary of the Navy Gordon England was expected Friday to give formal, final approval to the plan to replace Navy and Marine Corps training on the Navy’s Vieques, Puerto Rico range as of May. The range is the only location that East coast-based units of the military services have for practicing combat amphibious invasions using all of the tactics used in such attacks — marines storming ashore while planes drop bombs from above and ships fire from offshore.
England briefed the Congress’ strongest critic of replacing the range, Senate Armed Services Committee Member James Inhofe (R-OK), Tuesday night. The briefing came just one day after the two other strongest opponents of replacing the range, Representative James Hansen (R-UT) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-AZ) retired from congressional service.
Inhofe told England that he would have his staff study the plan. Beforehand, indications were that he would accept it if he could.
The plan would replace training for combat amphibious invasions in a single location. Instead, it would divide up the training among multiple locations. Military officers have previously said such training would not be as good.
Under a law enacted in December 2001, however, the Secretary of the Navy can replace the Vieques range with training in more than one location if he finds the training to be as good after receiving the advice of the top officers of the Navy and the Marine Corps.
As previously reported in UPDATE, the plan would have most of the target practice done at sea using virtual reality machines that will simulate targets on screens on ships and planes and it would also use a number of military bases and target ranges in Florida and other southern States.
Late last month, the Pentagon agreed to reallocate a third of a billion dollars over the next six years to implement the plan. The funds were reallocated from other Navy programs. The Navy plans to ask the Congress’ Appropriations Committees for approval to use funds appropriated to it for other purposes for the fiscal year that ends September 30 to implement the plan now. The budget for the next fiscal year that President Bush is expected to send to the Congress in early February would ask for another $60.5 million.
Naval officials contend that the plan will have advantages even though all tactics will not be practiced in one location. They say that having only one location for the exercises enables troops to become too familiar with the terrain and targets and that variety would be better. Relying on one location also makes training vulnerable to problems such as bad weather or civilian break-ins onto the range.
They also point out that the training at sea will enable practice firing using longer-range weapons than can be used on Vieques with longer range weapons now being more commonly used in warfare.
The end of training at the range last May was initially ordered by President Clinton in a January 2000 agreement with then-Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Rossello (statehood party/D) and the Pentagon. The orders and laws based on the orders that were enacted in 2000 required the end of all training at the range this May 1 if the residents of Vieques voted for that. The orders and laws also --
(1) Immediately ended exercises on the range using explosive ordnance.
(2) Immediately cut exercises using non-explosive ordnance to 90 days a year from 182 the year before.
(3) Appropriated $40 million to address Vieques social, economic, and environmental concerns.
(4) Had the Navy give up 25% of the island -- 8,000 plus acres -- on the western side.
Current Puerto Rico Governor Sila Calderon ("commonwealth" party/no national party) opposed this agreement in 2000, saying laws and presidential orders requiring an end of training in May 2003 could not be trusted. She also said that she would get the training ended immediately.
In office, she said that there never was an agreement and took actions that that violated the accord, including --
(A) A lawsuit (that claimed that noise from five inch guns on ships 10 miles from residents were damaging the hearts of the resident s of Vieques (a claim that was later found to be totally false).
(B) A referendum with an immediate end of training option.
(C) Lobbying the White House and the Congress against the May 2003 end of training date.
Her actions and lobbying resulted in legislation that repealed the legal requirement that the training end this May.
The military officers who agreed to the May 2003 end in January 2000 followed through on replacing the Vieques range even though the law now does not require it. In addition to the reasons above, their records were also at stake: the May 2003 date was originally set because they had said that it could be accomplished
Encouraged by Puerto Rico Republicans, President Bush supported the 2000 agreement as a presidential candidate and after he took office. But the White House has not touched the issue since mid-2001 when Bush reiterated the May 2003 plan, and in national news media, Rep. Hansen and Sen. Inhofe strongly criticized the Administration for committing to leave without an alternative.
Since then, the issue has been left to the discretion of the Navy. Since January 2000, the Navy has consistently reiterated its commitment to replace Vieques by this May.
Calderon Corporate Tax Exemption Bill Left Out of Major Plans But Still Around
Rep. Richard Pombo of California was selected by House Republican leaders to be the new Chairman of the Resources Committee. The Committee is the lead House committee on territories issues.
Pombo was an original sponsor of the bill that the House passed in 1998 that would have enabled Puerto Rico’s voters to choose the territory’s future political status among all the real options – statehood, nationhood, and continued territorial status.
Pombo’s selection was a surprise since he ranked only number ten on the Committee’s Republican hierarchy. Committee chairmanships usually go to the members of the majority party who have served the longest on a committee and do not have another chairmanship that they want more.
The Californian was selected after Republicans balked at the idea of the top ranking Republican, James Saxton (NJ), succeeding to the chairmanship and a fierce fight broke out between the second and third ranking Republicans, Elton Gallegly (CA) and John Duncan (TN) respectively. Saxton was considered to be too bipartisan.
Saxton has not been active on territorial issues, Gallegly has been, and Duncan has had some involvement. Gallegly, now Chairman of the International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Europe, previously chaired the Committee’s former territories subcommittee and has opposed proposals of Puerto Rico’s "commonwealth" party to obtain national government powers for the territory. He was a protégé of former Rep. Robert Lagomarsino of an adjoining part of California, a strong supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico. Duncan, by contrast helped now Resident Commissioner Acevedo oppose statehood being an option for Puerto Rico.
Ultimately, Pombo was selected because of his conservative environmental views as Gallegly was felt to be too sensitive to environmental concerns.
Pombo was Chairman of the Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on Livestock and Horticulture and the Western Caucus in the last Congress. He is also a member of the Public Works and Transportation Committee, which is chaired by Don Young (R-AK), the primary sponsor of the 1998 Puerto Rico status choice bill.
Pete Domenici of New Mexico was to become chairman of the Senate committee with lead jurisdiction over territories issues, Energy and Natural Resources. Domenici is considered to be open to the idea of a Puerto Rican status choice among all the real options but he has not been active on the issue.
Domenici is best known as the Senate’s Republican leader on budget issues and an advocate of a balanced budget. He has been the top Republican on the Budget Committee and also serves on the Appropriations, Government Affairs, and Indian Affairs Committees.
The current top Democrats on the territories committees remain the same: Nick Joe Rahall (WVA) on the House committee and Jeff Bingaman (NM) on the Senate committee. Both have supported a Puerto Rico status choice among all the real options and been critical of Puerto Rico "commonwealth" party national powers without nationhood proposals.
Key Members of Congress to Visit Puerto Rico
The 108th Congress convened its first sessions this week and then promptly, as is traditional, took a break from Washington. Its Members will reconvene for President Bush’s State of the Union Address at the end of the month.
Many Members will travel over the next few weeks — including a number of important ones to Puerto Rico. House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) will visit next week. Many House Hispanic Democrats are schedule to be in the territory January 22-26.
Bush Puerto Rico Status Task Force Said Diverted to Terrorism Defense
A directive that dates to President Kennedy -- and that was most recently revised by President Bush’s father — states that the White House has a special responsibility for policy on Puerto Rico, including special issues that arise from Puerto Rico’s territorial status. President Clinton took the assignment the most seriously of any president, specifically naming aides to handle the issues, establishing a group of senior agency officials to coordinate on day-to-day issues, and issuing a formal executive order to help Puerto Ricans choose the territory’s ultimate status and become a State or a nation. That order created the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status.
President Bush suggested that he would take Puerto Rico’s fundamental issues seriously when he amended the Clinton order -- even though the amendment delayed the deadline of the task force’s first report to the President.
Little has happened since then, however. An initial report was given to the President in August 2001, but it only said that the members of the task force were being named. There has been no word whether all of the members have been named yet or whether the second report, due August 2002, was submitted. Administration officials are known to have studied the issues and consulted Puerto Rico Republicans and experts, but no other actions seem to have been taken. They are also known to be concerned about and object to Governor Calderon’s plans to seek national government powers for the territory without seeking nationhood.
Puerto Rico Republicans were led to believe that the Administration would begin to work on the issue after this past gubernatorial election in Florida. It was said that Administration officials did not want to stimulate Governor Calderon to spend Puerto Rico government money against the re-election of the President’s brother, Jeb.
Recently, however, a White House spokeswoman told Puerto Ricans that the members of the task force have been busy with defense against terrorism since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
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