Lawmakers Support Ongoing Preparedness
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, state lawmakers worked to shore up Tennessee’s disaster preparedness by fighting the Pentagon’s attempt to dismantle the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Airlift Wing. Eighteen Middle Tennessee legislators today filed papers in U.S. District Court in support of Governor Bredesen’s lawsuit to keep the feds from shuttering Nashville’s 118th Airlift Wing, which plays a key role in disaster and emergency response and recovery in Tennessee and neighboring states. Members of the 118th currently are deployed along the Gulf Coast to assist in relief and recovery. “Last week’s tragedy underscores that we need to be increasing — not decreasing — our state’s level of preparedness,” said State Representative Gary Odom, chairman of the Davidson County legislative delegation.
In addition to Odom, legislators filing papers in federal court include: State Senators Thelma Harper, Joe Haynes, Douglas Henry and Rosalind Kurita, and State Representatives Stratton Bone, Rob Briley, Kent Coleman, Eugene Davidson, John Hood, Sherry Jones, Edith Taylor Langster, Kim McMillan, Gary Moore, Mary Pruitt, Janis Baird Sontany, Mike Turner and Ben West Jr. Tennessee’s Democratic members of Congress — Jim Cooper, Lincoln Davis, Harold Ford, Bart Gordon and John Tanner — also have filed papers in support of the 118th.
Meanwhile, Republican Senators Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander have declined to get involved, presumably for fear of bucking Bush’s base closure plans. And both Republican members of the Davidson County legislative delegation — State Senator Jim Bryson and State Representative Beth Halteman-Harwell — refused to sign on to last week’s legal filings. Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke encouraged them to change their minds. “Speaking out in support of the 118th Airlift Wing ought to be a bipartisan initiative that we can all agree on,” said Tuke, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “It’s past time for Senators Frist and Alexander to stand up for their home state. At the very least, we ought to be able to muster unanimous support in the Davidson County legislative delegation. Senator Bryson and Representative Harwell need to step up and get involved.”
