Schaffer supports funding ban on Pinon Canyon

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer told the Pueblo Chieftain Tuesday that he supports a Congressional funding ban on a 414,000-acre expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site until the Army can justify it.

"I am adamantly opposed to the use of eminent domain by the government in this case," Schaffer told the Chieftain. "As far as I am concerned, the Army has not made its case for expanding Pinon Canyon. The Army is supposed to justify their reasons for the expansion (in a report to the Senate) and I am waiting for that report as well."

Schaffer added the Army may well make a good case for expanding the site.

"Without a doubt, military expansion is good for Colorado," he said. "The presence of a growing Fort Carson is in the best interest of the state. But the Army didn't link expanding Pinon Canyon to Fort Carson the last time it decided to base more brigades there."

U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-Eldorado Springs), Schaffer's presumptive Democratic U.S. Senate opponent, has stated a similar opinion on Pinon Canyon.

Udall has also said the Army has so far failed to make a case for the expansion and has asked for a Government Accountability Office study of the issue, the Chieftain stated.

Schaffer told the Chieftain that it's Gov. Bill Ritter who should be providing "decisive leadership" on the Pinon Canyon issue.

"It is foolish to expect the nine-member congressional delegation to map out the future of the southeastern corner of the state," Schaffer told the Chieftain. "This is a case that calls for decisive leadership by the governor."