William Helms: “This amendment proposes to stop the Federal Government and its bureaucrats from, first, preventing the Department of the…”

“This amendment proposes to stop the Federal Government and its bureaucrats from, first, preventing the Department of the Army from carrying out its national security mission and, second, wasting taxpayer dollars in the process. The amendment addresses a problem the Army is having at Fort Bragg, NC. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed a red-cockaded woodpecker as a threatened and endangered species and has designated Fort Bragg as a major recovery area for the red-cockaded woodpecker. The bureaucrats at the Fish and Wildlife Service have forced the Department of the Army to go to great length and great expense to set aside land, create tank trails, create nesting areas, and restrict construction--all to meet an arbitrary plan to protect woodpecker nests. The Department of the Army has been required, first, to set aside 12,000 acres of land just to protect the woodpecker; second, to prepare a 44-page report that limits training activities of the Army; third, since fiscal year 1989, the Army has spent more than $5 million as a result of the efforts to protect the woodpecker; fourth, to halt eight construction projects at the base.”