Wes McKinley

WALSH, CO – State Representative Wes McKinley (D-Walsh) today spoke out in his typically straight-shooting manner, calling upon both of Colorado’s U. S. Senators to bring a halt to the proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in the southeast part of the state.  The proposal would add 414,000 acres to the existing 238,000 – an area entirely within McKinley’s House District 64, east of Trinidad and Colorado Springs, east and south to the state border.

A week ago, the U.S. House passed an anti-Pinon Canyon amendment by a vote of 383-34.  Yesterday, Senator Allard said he was undecided and Senator Salazar said that he would “…oppose the expansion unless it provides significant economic benefits to southeastern Colorado.”  

State Rep. McKinley responded:

“The U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from seizing our property.  The constitution does not guarantee ‘significant economic benefits’.  Besides, you know who’ll get those benefits?  Pentagon contractors from Halliburton, not workers from Hoehne.  I want our U.S. Senators to support the constitution, not contractors.  

“Senators, please protect what’s important to all Coloradans, especially to those of us here in the southeast: our family-owned land.  Listen to the people, not the Pentagon profiteers.

“Senators, in the name of property rights, for the sake of our families, we urge you to keep the House language in the military construction bill that blocks the Pinon Canyon expansion and to protect the Colorado ranches that have been passed down from generation-to-generation.”

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