Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said a final bill that supports the important work performed at our military installations and two defense laboratories has cleared the Senate (86-13). It will now be signed by President Obama.

"New Mexico's bases and Sandia and Los Alamos laboratories receive strong support in this important piece of legislation," Bingaman said.

The bill authorizes funding for the following:

Cannon Air Force Base

• $15 million for 96-Room Dormitory
• $7.598 million for ADAL Wastewater Treatment Plant
• $10.941 million for C-130 Squadron Operations Facility
• $10.856 million for C-130 Wash Rack Hanger
• $15 million for Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Facility
• $28.1 million for Apron and Taxiway
• $41.2 million for Hangar Aircraft Maintenance Unit
• $9.6 million for ADAL Simulator Facility
• $17.3 million for Squadron Operations Facility

Holloman Air Force Base

• $11.2 million for Child Development Center
• $8 million for Parallel Taxiway
• $5.8 million for F-16 Academic Facility
• $4.2 million for F-16 SEAD Training Facility

Kirtland Air Force

• $25 million for Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center Sustainment Center

Army National Guard

• $5.2 million Readiness Center (Santa Fe)

The bill authorizes the following lab funding:

• Nuclear Weapons Activities and Stockpile Stewardship: $7.3 billion
• Non Proliferation: $2.3 billion
• Clean up of nuclear weapons sites: $5 billion, which includes $215 million for WIPP and $189 million for LANL
• Authorized $9.9 million for a new Transuranic (TRU) Waste Facility for Los Alamos National Laboratory
• CMRR building design at $200 million

Bingaman said he voted for the bill because of its great importance to New Mexico and our troops, but he said he continues to have serious concerns about provisions in the bill that relate to the detention of individuals who are detained by the U.S. military.

In a statement he included in the Congressional Record, Bingaman cited several problems with the detainee provisions, including:

1. The U.S. military is given the authority to indefinitely detain, without trial, an individual suspected of involvement in hostilities against the United States.  The ability to detain the person without charges could last until the "end of hostilities"– a completely undefined period of time considering that we are confronting a long-term conflict with groups, such as al-Qaeda, who will never sign a peace treaty ending the hostilities.  But it does not make clear that Congress intends to exclude American citizens from such detention.
2. The measure also mandates that the military detain suspected members of al-Qaeda, including those captured within the United States, despite the fact that military and federal law enforcement officials have argued that this provision will hamper their ability to bring suspected terrorists to justice by limiting the flexibility of civilian law enforcement and creating a completely new and untested framework for dealing with suspected terrorists.

"When this bill was debated on the Senate floor, I supported an amendment offered by Senator Mark Udall to remove all of the detainee provisions from the bill. Unfortunately, the measure was not adopted.  It was my hope that these matters would be dealt with as the legislative process moved forward and I am disappointed that efforts to adequately address these concerns were unsuccessful.  I will continue to support efforts to revise these provisions as Congress discusses detainee matters in the future," Bingaman said.