S.Amdt. 2320

SA 2320. Mr. COTTON submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize

[[Page S3240]]

appropriations for fiscal year 2019 for military activities of the
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place in title III, insert the
following:

SEC. __. LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS TO CLOSE AIR NATIONAL
GUARD TRAINING RANGES.

No funds may be used to proceed with plans for closure,
transfer, transition, downgrade, or consolidation of any Air
National Guard range until at least 30 days after the
Department of Defense submits to the congressional defense
committees a plan for the impacted range or ranges that
includes the following:
(1) A description of total usage rates for the range or
ranges from all services and United States Special Operations
Command users, including active, Guard, and Reserve forces.
(2) An assessment of the impact of all new mission demands
that will require the use of and access to Air National Guard
ranges.
(3) An assessment of the ability of the remaining ranges to
absorb the demands of additional training requirements as a
result of range closure.
(4) A cost analysis of increased annual training costs
incurred as a result of diverting sorties to ranges further
from those ranges currently in use.
(5) A full inventory of all tactical, electronic, and
support equipment and vehicles on each range, by range, and a
detailed disposition timeline for execution.
(6) If plan execution requires the modification of assigned
personnel or force structure, a report on what will happen to
the people in the losing billets and any impacts a proposed
force structure change will have on scheduling flexibility.
(7) If the Air National Guard plans to transfer a range to
another service, the plan must also include a timeline for
transition and details of the transfer, including funding
changes, decision authorities for transfer, and written
commitment from decision authority of the gaining service
that they are resourced to take on new mission and are
prepared to support range operations and capabilities.
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