New Mexico Congressional delegates have asked Appropriations committee leaders for $72.5 million in the Fiscal 2007 Supplemental Appropriations bill to pay for construction projects at Cannon AFB, N.M., to accommodate the shift to an Air Force Special Operations Command base, reports the Clovis News Journal. New Mexico legislators are worried that the Air Force hasn’t allocated the necessary funding soon enough to meet a planned Oct. 1 turnover to AFSOC. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) questioned Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England during a Feb. 28 budget hearing last week about $70 million USAF had earmarked for Cannon in its 2008 unfunded priorities list. England admitted that he found the $70 million “sort of a surprising number,” but he assured Domenici that between the Air Force and US Special Operations Command “there’s well over $600 million for Cannon.” England also maintained that AFSOC would “take ownership” and Cannon “will be operational on Oct. 1.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
