'It's Not A Buyout': Jacky Rosen Asks Navy Officials About Payment To Ranchers For Buying Their Land

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Senator Rosen.

[00:00:02]Uh, well, thank you, Chairman Wicker, ranking member Reed, for holding this hearing and excuse me, I'd like to thank the witnesses uh for testifying today and for your service to this country. We appreciate you.

[00:00:13]And I want to talk a little bit about Fallon Naval Air Station and modernization. I see you know a lot about it. So, Secretary Cowen Admiral Codell, Nevada, I'm going to tell everyone who doesn't know here, Nevada is proud to host Naval Air Station Fallon. Yes, we have a naval base in Nevada. We are proudly home to Top Gun, our nation's premier carrier wing air wing and SEAL training centers among other things. And as you well know, the Nevada delegations work closely with the Navy, federal agencies, tribal governments, and local stakeholders for years to secure the Fallon Range Training Complex modernization FY23 NDAA, expanding the range by over 600,000 acres to meet critical national security training needs.

[00:00:59]So, now we're nearly 4 years into the modernization effort and I've made it clear each time that Navy leadership has come before the committee that as part of the deal you struck in 2022, you have to fully completely compensate those grazing permit holders for their lifetime loss because the payments offered to the ranchers in the B-16 range complex completely it's missing the mark. The 2-year clock for payments to the ranchers in the B-17 range has already begun. So, we just have to get this right. You have to get this right.

[00:01:31]I'm disappointed there's still significant discrepancies in valuing the permanent loss of forage and considering the loans that the permittee must um repay because permit grazer's losses should be treated as a complete loss.

[00:01:44]It's not a buyout. And in many cases in Nevada, these are multi-generational families they've just been there forever and they're giving up not just their grazing rights, their livelihood and what their family's done for generation after generation and they're giving it up in service to our country. And so these Nevadans have kept up their side of the bargain and we have to do what's necessary for our aviators and SEAL teams, as you know, Mr. Secretary, and the best training in a realistic environment. So now it's the Navy's turn. So to Secretary and Admiral Cow, Cowdell, how has the Navy reviewed and reassessed payment offers based on the latest input that the team in northern Nevada has received to ensure every single permittee is made whole in this process.

[00:02:31]>> if I could just take two seconds to to brag about Fallon because I've spent a lot of time there clearing that that was built in World War when we we had to fight two sides and we didn't know if we were going to if we had to give up one side, we would basically give up the Pacific and fight the Atlantic and use use bases like Fallon on the other side of mountain to do a counterattack to take back California. So that's that's the really the the history of the base and right now every single carrier air wing goes out there to train to go out there. That's how we're able to do Epic Fury and Absolute Resolve so well because of the training ranges there.

[00:03:06]Again, Fallon has done a lot of things over the years. I remember back in the days we put the the um solar panels all around the bases in order to pay back to the the city to export the energy out there. We we have been in negotiations with the ranchers and again, I have a fiduciary responsibility also to the United States Navy to make sure we we get the best deal for us as well and we we are I'd love to come out there and visit the base one more time. Again, I love riding around the ATVs, slapping C4 on those all all those unexploded munitions and blow them up, but I'll I'll go out there with you, Senator, and and we'll Perfect. So we have a whole a bunch of other things. I'm going to have the Admiral speak to this too, but we have of roads out there that have to be moved around. We have some flooding issues on the B-16 range. So, I welcome you to come to my office and we can discuss it in length. You know it well and we can get go moving forward.

[00:04:02]Please, Admiral.

[00:04:04]Well, Senator, you know, we've talked.

[00:04:06]I'm committed to doing what's right by the ranchers there. I want to and but it you know, these things are delicate and they've got both sides and there's rubrics on how we evaluate these things and there's escrow accounts and all these things are going on from really outside my lane, but you have my full support on the importance of Fallon. It goes without saying. I mean, we have worked very hard there to deliver a lot of quality of service improvement there.

[00:04:30]The housing there is a challenge. And you know, over 100 I think it's 172 military homes that need to be, you know, completed there as part of that >> even more than that. We need infrastructure as well.

[00:04:41]>> outstripping our supply. Yes, ma'am.

[00:04:44]Yeah, because the our um men and women who work out there and their families, they're they're having to live in our way in Reno where housing is already short. So, there's a lot to do. I'd love for you to come talk with my team and we can review that and continue to move forward and keep Fallon as amazing place as it is. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:05:04]>> Thank you, Senator Rosen.