State of New Mexico
House of Representatives
Ben Lujan, Speaker of the House
Ken Martinez, House Majority Leader
Sheryl Williams Stapleton, House Majority Whip

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release                                                                  Contact: Susan Tungate  505-577-8132 February 21, 2009                                                                                                      Victoria Chavez 646-241-5335                                                                                
Rep. Cote’s HM 3
Requesting a Task Force to Study the Impact of an Expected Doubling
of the White Sands Missile Range Passes House

Santa Fe, NM-HM 3-Study Missile Range Size Increase introduced by Rep. Nathan P. Cote (D-Dona Ana & Otero-53) which requests the New Mexico Legislative Council to assemble a task force to study the impact of an expected doubling of the White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces and Alamogordo passed the House of Representatives  Saturday by a unanimous vote of 60 to 0.

Said Rep. Cote, “This memorial which assembles a task force to study the impact of growth of the White Sands Missile Range is particularly important to the people of Otero and Dona Ana Counties.  Over 11,000 new soldiers and their families will need housing, schools, adequate roads and other infrastructure.  We need to plan now for this new influx of people in our community.”

The task force will report the results of the study to an interim committee in the fall of 2009.