Washington, D.C. — Congressmen G. K. Butterfield today applauded House approval of a national defense bill that includes language barring the Navy from building an outlying landing field at a site in North Carolina’s Washington and Beaufort counties.
“This is another step forward in the process of moving away from a site that would put our community, pilots and aircraft in danger,” Butterfield said.
The FY 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, passed by a 397 to 27 vote, includes 23 lines of legislative language repealing the authorization to construct an outlying landing field (OLF) at the site identified by the Navy in Washington and Beaufort counties. The bill is part of Congress’ two-part process for oversight of the Department of Defense.
The authorization bill establishes the agencies responsible for defense and sets the policies under which money will be spent. Essentially, it authorizes the money to be spent. The second part, appropriations, actually appropriates the money. The appropriations bill will be completed later this year.
The Senate must now craft and approve its own version of the bill. Any differences between the bills would then have to be reconciled by a House-Senate conference committee, and the final version of the bill would then be approved by both the House and Senate.
Butterfield said that he is hopeful that similar language will be included in the Senate version, which would help ensure that the language becomes law.
Butterfield said that he has been working closely with Congressman David Price to protect the community with the legislative language. He said they will also be working together to place comparable language in the upcoming House Military Construction Appropriations bill “in order to send the strongest and clearest possible message to the Navy.”
The Navy has already purchased more than 2,000 acres in Washington and Beaufort counties as part of a 30,000-acre OLF the Navy says it needs in order to train pilots to land on aircraft carriers. The proposed site lies just west of an area that was established specifically as a waterfowl sanctuary where thousands of birds winter annually. At peak, there are about 25,000 tundra swans and more than 65,000 snow geese which regularly fly out to feed in the farm fields just west of the site.
Recently, Navy Secretary Donald Winter told Butterfield during a meeting on Capitol Hill that the Navy is ready and willing to work with the state to find an alternative site.