Bishop is worried about Hill

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.