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Syracuse Post Standard

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three Republican members of Congress from Central and Northern New York say they will work together to protect Fort Drum and the 174th Attack Wing at Hancock Field from personnel losses in future Pentagon budget cuts.

U.S. Reps. John Katko, R-Camillus, Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, and Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, plan to tour both bases on Tuesday as part of their effort to show a united front in Congress against the cuts.

Stefanik serves on the House Armed Services Committee, and could be a strong voice with Katko and Hanna in the GOP majority to advocate for the bases.

The Army is in the process of holding hearings at 30 bases across the nation to receive feedback from communities about the potential cuts. The hearing about Fort Drum, home of the 10th Mountain Division, will be 5 p.m. March 20 at Jefferson Community College in Watertown.

The Army is studying the potential impact of reducing its force by an additional 16,000 soldiers and civilian employees at each of nine bases nationwide. The study will present a worst-case scenario of the most extreme cuts if Congress allows the federal sequester budget cuts to remain in place.

The Army says it is required to plan for the extreme cuts as part of the sequester. At its worst, Army officials said, they would have to pare the force from 562,000 soldiers to 420,000.

Fort Drum officials this week released a report showing the base near Watertown had an economic impact of about $1.3 billion on the region in 2014. The base is home to 17,269 soldiers and 18,383 family members, according to the report.

Since fiscal 1988, Fort Drum has infused more than $21 billion into New York's economy, the report said.

Fort Drum's size was already reduced by about 1,500 soldiers as part of a 2013 Army decision to inactivate a combat brigade at the base. Those cutbacks were part of an existing Army plan to cut its overall number of combat brigades from 45 to 33, reducing the size of the Army by 80,000 soldiers by 2017.

Watertown Daily Times

WATERTOWN — Rep. Elise M. Stefanik said her decision to vote for a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security was not difficult.

“Every day of the week I will put the interests of the district first,” Ms. Stefanik said. “Plain and simple, I’m not going to vote to shut the government down. I’m not going to vote to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.”

Congress narrowly averted a shutdown of DHS by approving a one-week extension of funding for the department. Ms. Stefanik said that Friday she supported a bill passed by the Senate that removed language undoing President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. That bill was not approved by the House, as Republicans continued to disagree about how to counteract what they have characterized as the president’s abuse of executive authority. The temporary stopgap measure was approved by vote of 357 to 60.

For Ms. Stefanik, who ran on a platform of “crossing the aisle” to find “bipartisan solutions,” Friday’s vote represented an opportunity to make good on her promises.

“I ran on getting away from this type of Washington dysfunction,” she said Sunday.

It also represented the end of her second month in office after a historic victory as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

In February, Ms. Stefanik opened district offices in Glens Falls and Plattsburgh, hired a legislative assistant for military affairs, was named vice-chairwoman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and traveled to the Middle East.

During the February recess, Ms. Stefanik toured parts of Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan with other members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Ms. Stefanik and Representatives Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Brad Ashford, D-Neb., met with officials including King Abdullah II of Jordan and Iraqi President Fuad Masum.

Though some have questioned the wisdom or necessity of the trip, Ms. Stefanik said it was worth the time and money.

“There is no question that getting briefings from military commanders on the ground in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq is a more effective way to learn than in hearing rooms,” Ms. Stefanik said.

Ms. Stefanik said one of the most valuable parts of the trip was meeting with troops from New York serving overseas and hearing their perspectives on issues both at home and abroad.

“It was an extraordinary privilege for me to be a part of the meetings with the soldiers in the district and show them our support but also to educate myself on some of the key challenges we’re facing in Afghanistan and Iraq,” she said.

For Ms. Stefanik, the month was filled with small victories — legislation on Section 529 College Savings Plans, charitable contributions and grant funding for science, technology, engineering and math programs — and frustrations, including President Obama’s veto of a bill authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Supporters of the pipeline, including Republicans in Congress, have hailed the project as a “jobs creator” and a way to strengthen energy policy and relations with Canada, while environmentalists have decried the pipeline as an ecologically unsound project that will only exacerbate the reliance on fossil fuels.

But with stories of train derailments and explosions becoming more frequent, Ms. Stefanik cited safety as one of the many reasons she is supporting the pipeline.

“The perspective I have from our district is the oil trains that are going at very high speeds throughout parts of the 21st district, in many cases right along waterways and lakes. ... They’re very unsafe,” Ms. Stefanik said.

The job-creating aspect of the project has been called into question.

According to a State Department report about the pipeline, spending on the project would support 42,100 “direct, indirect and induced” jobs, including 3,900 direct construction jobs over a two-year period.

Following construction, the project would generate 50 jobs during operations, the report said.

“I’m pretty confident in standing by the assessment that this will create tens of thousands of jobs,” Ms. Stefanik said.

Ms. Stefanik will be one of the speakers during a listening session March 20 about the future of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. She said she has invited other members of the New York state delegation in Washington to attend as well.

“My colleagues on the Armed Services Committee know that I am the go-to person for Fort Drum and I will protect Fort Drum at all costs,” she said.

Representatives Richard Hanna, R-Utica, John Katko, R-Syracuse, and Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, are expected to visit the post this month, Ms. Stefanik said.

Circling back to the immigration issue and fight over funding the DHS, Ms. Stefanik said she wanted to see immigration issues solved by the legislative process rather than executive action but that they should be separated from the debate over funding the department.

“We have to stop the policymaking of coming to the brink with discussions of government shutdown,” Ms. Stefanik said. “I support and I am urging leadership to bring up the clean Senate bill, which will provide long-term continuity through September. I am optimistic that if that is brought to the floor it will pass with Democrats and some Republicans.”

Watertown Daily Times

Watertown Daily Times

CANTON - Rep. Elise M. Stefanik said meetings with heads of state across the Middle East gave her new perspective on the collaborative approach needed to tackle threats from radical groups such as the Islamic State.

One fresh perspective came from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who told her and other visiting American lawmakers that the threat of radical groups wasn’t limited to his own country, but to the region and the rest of the world.

“The United States needs to lead by example, and we also need to show our allies that we are committed to their success in the long run, and we need to partner with other allies across the world,” Ms. Stefanik said in a phone call with the Times.

A weeklong trip included stops in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan, meeting with officials such as King Abdullah II of Jordan and Iraqi President Fuad Masum.

The trip also included visits with American forces from the district, including some from Fort Drum.

Ms. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, said they were concerned about the effects of sequestration on their ability to be effective. She also said Fort Drum-area soldiers spoke highly of their family connections to the north country community.

In addition to Ms. Stefanik, the American delegation included fellow House Armed Services Committee members Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Rep. Brad Ashford, D-Neb.

Ms. Stefanik said that the leaders of the countries she visited, which are predominantly Muslim, argued the violence of ISIS did not represent the Islamic faith, and that King Abdullah called the work of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, “theological fascism.”

She said the arguments about the group’s connection to Islam were best made by the Middle Eastern governments.

One method the Middle Eastern leaders raised for subverting radical groups, Ms. Stefanik said, was “making sure there are jobs and economic opportunity” so young people aren’t being recruited by their radical messages.

In Jordan, Ms. Stefanik said, public opinion against ISIS grew stronger following its recent execution of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Ms. Stefanik noted the United States’ work in Afghanistan, where a status-of-forces agreement was secured to continue working in the country. That agreement was not in place in Iraq. She said if it had been, she didn’t think Iraq would have seen the Islamic State take swaths of land, as it did.

”I think that’s a lack of leadership from the administration,” Ms. Stefanik said.

Meanwhile, the message from American leaders in Afghanistan was optimistic coming into the spring, when fighting begins to increase. American forces formally shifted to an advisory role this year, with Afghan forces leading the fight against ISIS and the Taliban. Despite rising deaths in Afghan military and police forces, Ms. Stefanik said, leaders such as President Ghani said they were committed to the fight.

“This is going to be a long fight, and their country is at stake,” she said. “That’s what President Ghani talked about. This is a generational fight. It’s a long-term struggle against radical extremists.”