Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

U.S. SENATOR Jeff Bingaman

Monday, September 29, 2008

Contact Senator Bingaman's Office:

Jude McCartin
Maria Najera
703 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5521

Bingaman: Senate Approves Spending Bill That Funds N.M. Military Initiatives

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today voted to approve legislation that funds multiple federal agencies, including the states military installations and a key New Mexico National Guard program that protects the New Mexico border region.

The measure includes many initiatives for which Bingaman sought funding, including $3.2 million for the New Mexico National Guard so it can continue to fund counter-drug efforts in the border region and enhance border security.  Bingaman has already secured $8.15 million for this program.    

“The New Mexico National Guard plays a vital role in helping intercept drugs and contraband at the border.  The funding will help continue this important program,” Bingaman said.

            The bill also contains funding for initiatives at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile range. 

Holloman Air Force Base would benefit from the following:

• $4 million, Holloman Air Force Base, to continue the development and construction of the prototype magnetic levitation test track to support high speed test operations; 
• $2.907 billion for 20 F-22 aircraft, enough to keep the Air Force on schedule to send 40 Raptors to Holloman Air Force Base by 2011.

White Sands stands to gain:

• $2 million, White Sands Missile Range, Joint Urban Environment Test Capability  ;
• $4 million, White Sands Missile Range, DoD High Energy Laser Test Facility;
• $4 million, White Sands Missile Range, to analyze WSMR road infrastructure and develop an operations and maintenance plan, including funding strategies for the long term sustainment of the range road infrastructure and to repair degraded road sections ensuring safe and capable support of test and training missions.

Cannon Air Force Base would gain:

·         $409 million for 6 CV-22 Osprey Tilt Rotor Craft;

·         $306 million for 4 MC-130J transport aircraft to replace aging 30 plus year old Air Force Special Operations Air Craft that perform all weather low terrain operations.

The bill also contains:  

$2.8 million – University of New Mexico, to support the Long Wave Length Array.   The Long Wavelength Array will be a very large (400 km) synthetic aperture radio astronomy telescope designed as a new instrument in the poorly explored region of the electromagnetic spectrum.  It will research astrophysics, space physics, space weather, and ionospheric physics.

$3 million – UNM, to develop new U.S. space-based and defense digital processing capability based upon reconfigurable circuits. 

$3.2 million – UNM, University Strategic Partnerships, for research, develop, test and evaluation programs through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

$7 million – New Mexico Tech, Smart Instrument Development for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO).  The United States Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have joined a consortium of research universities, including the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) and Cambridge University, in a unique teaming arrangement to build a state-of-the-art observatory in the Magdalena Mountains near Socorro, New Mexico.

$4 million – NM Tech, Playas Training and Research Center Joint Training Experiment.  Funding will be used to establish the PTRC as a Joint National Training and Experimentation Site for National Guard Bureau (NGB) active and reserve personnel, as well as for Air National Guard and Army National Guard personnel. Playas is envisioned as becoming an integral portion of the Joint National Training Capability.

$2.4 million – to support Tularosa Basin National Inland Research and Testing facility, Alamogordo.

$10 million – New Mexico State University Institute for Defense and Public Policy Institute for National Security and Public Policy that will prepare national security professionals to serve as managers and policy leaders in an ever-changing global environment.

$800,000 – New Mexico State University, to develop a comprehensive total cost analysis of

munitions production taking into account associated environmental and health risks and

production and reclamation expenses, and 2) evaluate environmental impact associated with

testing and deploying ammunition containing heavy metals.

$3.2 million – Applied Research Associates, Inc., Albuquerque, High Energy Conventional Energetics

$500,000 – TruTouch, Albuquerque, to develop a portable autonomous fluid-less near-infrared non-invasive alcohol testing devices.

$2.4 million – Goodrich Corp. Space Flight Systems, Albuquerque, to develop new technology to distribute power to Air Force space craft.

$5 million – UAV Systems and Operations Validation Program at New Mexico State University to test a wide array of small and medium size UAVs for the DOD.

$800,000 – for a center for responsive space systems at the University of New Mexico to study small responsive satellites.

$2.4 million – Alaska Structures in Las Cruces to develop a new generation of portable structures that the DOD can deploy in a wide array of conditions overseas.