N.C. congressional leaders seek to block funding to inactivate 440th Airlift Wing

Congressional leaders hoping to save the 440th Airlift Wing are brushing off an earlier tactic with hope it works better the second time around.

Five North Carolina members of the U.S. House of Representatives are asking Congress to block any funding for deactivating, relocating or otherwise disrupting the mission, personnel or aircraft of the 440th Airlift Wing.

In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, the representatives ask that language protecting the one-star Air Force Reserve unit at Fort Bragg be included in the 2016 Defense Appropriations Bill.

A similar attempt was made last year in the 2015 appropriations bill, but the request - made by Rep. David Price - was defeated during a voice vote after being opposed by senior Republicans.

A similar amendment, proposed last year to the National Defense Authorization Act by Rep. Renee Ellmers, also would have forbidden the inactivation but did not make it into the House version of the bill.

This year, North Carolina lawmakers are hoping for better results.

The five congressmen include four Republicans - Ellmers, Richard Hudson, David Rouzer and George Holding - and one Democrat, Price.

Ellmers said the latest request shows leaders aren't giving up, even as they run out of time.

"The fight is far from over," she said in a statement on the appropriations request.

The letter to Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen and Peter Visclosky - the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Defense - said closure of the Airlift Wing would create more than economic damage.

"Beyond the direct impact of over 1,200 service members and their families directly associated with the unit, our fear is that the deactivation of the unit will adversely affect the high-quality training that some of the nation's best combat units rely on," the letter read.

Ellmers' statement said she believes the request sends a strong message "that inactivation of such a critical airlift wing remains a poor choice, and one that unquestionably deserves reconsideration."

In a separate statement, Hudson said the 440th Airlift Wing was needed now more than ever to "ensure our rapid reaction forces are prepared for deployment at a moment's notice."

Congressional leaders have been fighting the proposed inactivation of the 440th Airlift Wing for more than a year.

The wing, which flies C-130H model cargo planes, has the only Air Force lift assets permanently based at Fort Bragg's Pope Field.

Fort Bragg leaders have said the planes are important to training the Army's airborne and special operations forces and have said training and readiness would suffer without them.

Congressional leaders had believed that language inserted in last year's National Defense Authorization Act would stave off the inactivation. But earlier this year, officials opened a clearing house to help airmen find new posts and said plans to shutter the unit were underway.

Officials said the NDAA language, which required a report to Congress on the movement of C-130s, delayed only the movement of the planes themselves.

Last week, Ellmers, Sen. Thom Tillis and a representative of Sen. Richard Burr met with Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James to discuss the inactivation. Representatives for Tillis and Ellmers said the meeting was short on answers.

In that meeting, Air Force officials said they are not closing the unit, a claim that was rejected by the lawmakers.

"The Air Force continues to state that removing airmen from the 440th does not constitute an attempt to shutter the air wing, despite the fact that C-130s cannot be flown without pilots and maintainers," Tillis said in a statement following the meeting.

At the time, Ellmers and Tillis called for the Air Force to release the "metrics and policy rationale underlying the Air Force's decision."