Order Code RS20458
Updated May 21, 2002
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Vieques, Puerto Rico Naval Training Range:
Background and Issues for Congress
Ronald O’Rourke
Specialist in National Defense
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
On June 14, 2001, the Bush Administration announced that it had decided to end
military training operations at the U.S. naval training range on the small Puerto Rican
island of Vieques by May 2003. The announcement superceded a January 2000
agreement between President Clinton and the previous Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro
Rossello, that called for holding a referendum on Vieques to decide its future. To
implement the Clinton-Rossello plan, Congress in 2000 approved $40 million in
assistance funding for Vieques and other legislation as part of P.L. 106-246 (H.R. 4425)
and P.L. 106-398 (H.R. 4205).
The FY2002 defense authorization act (P.L. 107-107 of December 28, 2001)
contains a provision (Section 1049) that (1) canceled the requirement for holding the
January 2002 referendum; (2) authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to close the Vieques
range if the Secretary certifies that equivalent or superior training facilities exist and are
immediately available; (3) requires the Secretary, in making this determination, to take
into account the views of Navy and Marine Corps leaders; and (4) transfers the lands to
the Department of the Interior if the range is closed.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s report (H.Rept. 107-151 of May 15,
2002) on the FY2003 defense authorization bill (S. 2514) directs the Navy to submit a
report to the congressional defense committees by March 1, 2003 on plans for joint task
force, combined-arms training of naval forces during FY2003, including planned
locations and use of live munitions, and on the Navy’s progress in identifying an
alternate location or locations for the Vieques range. This CRS report will be updated
as events warrant.
Background information
The Vieques Training Range. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a U.S.
territory in the Caribbean whose people are U.S. citizens. Vieques (pronounced vee-EH-
kez) is a small Puerto Rican island a few miles east of mainland Puerto Rico. The
Department of the Navy (DoN), which includes the Navy and Marine Corps, purchased
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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the western and eastern ends of the island between 1941 and 1950; the two DoN-owned
parcels totaled about 22,000 acres, or about two-thirds of the island. Almost all of the
8,000-acre western parcel, which was used primarily as a naval ammunition depot, was
returned by DoN to the Municipality of Vieques on May 1, 2001.
The remaining DoN-owned 14,000-acre eastern parcel has been used by U.S. naval
and other military forces since the early 1940s for training exercises involving ship-to-
shore gunfire, air-to-ground bombing by naval aircraft, Marine amphibious landings, or
some combination. The parcel includes a roughly 11,000-acre Eastern Maneuver Area
for Marine Corps ground exercises and a roughly 900-acre Live Impact Area (LIA)
designed for targeting by live ordnance. The LIA is at the eastern tip of the island, several
miles from the civilian-populated center section of the island, which has about 9,300
residents.
Until April 1999, the Navy used the Vieques training range about 180 days per year.
Of these, about 120 days were for integrated (i.e., combined land-sea-air) live-fire
exercises (i.e., exercises with explosive ammunition) by U.S. Atlantic Fleet aircraft carrier
battle groups and amphibious ready groups preparing to deploy overseas on regular six-
month-long deployments to the Mediterranean Sea or Persian Gulf. Until 2001, DoN
officials argued adamantly that there is no site other than Vieques where Atlantic Fleet
naval forces can conduct integrated live-fire training operations.
Puerto Rican Discontent and Opposition. U.S. military activities in Puerto
Rico have been a source of discontent among Puerto Ricans for several decades. Puerto
Rican opposition to DoN activities on Vieques increased after 1975, when DoN withdrew
from Culebra, another small Puerto Rican island near Vieques where DoN had conducted
some of its live-fire training operations. After withdrawing from Culebra as a
consequence of strong Puerto Rican opposition to DoN’s use of that island, DoN
consolidated its live-fire training operations at Vieques.
Puerto Rican dissatisfaction regarding military training activities on Vieques is
driven by several issues: (1) lost economic development potential due to lack of access
to most of the island’s land, interruptions to local fishing operations, and the effect of
DoN’s activities on reducing the potential for developing the island as a tourist
destination; (2) the inadequacy of past DoN economic development efforts intended to
compensate the Vieques community for this economic loss; (3) damage to the island’s
environment, ecology, natural resources, historic resources, and archaeological sites
caused by DoN training activities; (4) concern that the incidence of cancer or other
diseases might be increased by pollutants released into the local environment by DoN
training operations; (5) noise, especially from nearby ship-to-shore gunfire; (6) safety (the
risk of an off-range accident), and (7) perceived DoN insensitivity in conducting its
relations with the Vieques community.
April 19, 1999 Bombing Accident and Subsequent Impasse. On April 19,
1999, the pilot of a Marine Corps F-18 on a training mission mistakenly identified an
observation post located just to the west of the LIA (but still well within the overall range
perimeter) as its intended target. The two 500-pound bombs dropped by the plane struck
the post, killing David Sanes Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican civilian employed as a security
guard, and injuring four others. Following the accident, DoN temporarily suspended its
use of the range.

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The accident galvanized Puerto Rican opposition to DoN’s activities on the island.
Puerto Rican political leaders and overwhelming segments of Puerto Rican public opinion
soon declared their firm opposition to any further military training operations on the
island and called for DoN to withdraw from the island immediately and return the land
to Puerto Rico. At the same time, dozens of demonstrators entered the range (most of
which is off-limits to the civilian population) and established several protest camps,
preventing DoN from easily resuming training activities there.
Rush Panel. On June 9, 1999, President Clinton asked Secretary of Defense
William Cohen to establish a special panel to study the situation. The 4-member panel
was chaired by Frank Rush, who was the acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for force
management policy. The Rush panel, as it is sometimes called, released its report on
October 19, 1999. The report recommended, among other things, that DoN
should immediately conduct a priority assessment of the training requirements at
Vieques with the objective of ceasing all training activities at Vieques within five
years. The Navy should take necessary programming actions to ensure that adequate
resources are available to facilitate the identification and preparation of alternative
locations, to institute necessary changes in training methods, and to provide for
restoration and transfer to Puerto Rico of the Eastern Maneuver Area.
Clinton-Rossello Plan. On January 31, 2000, President Clinton announced an
agreement with then-Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Rossello on a plan for resolving the
dispute over Vieques. The plan called for holding a referendum of the registered voters
of Vieques to determine the future of DoN activities on the island. The referendum,
which was later scheduled for November 6, 2001, and subsequently rescheduled for
January 2002, would present two choices. One would be for DoN to cease training
activities no later than May 1, 2003; the other would be for DoN to continue training,
including live-fire training, beyond that date. If voters choose the second option, OMB
would submit a $50-million funding request to Congress to finance further infrastructure-
improvement and housing projects on the western end of Vieques. Under the plan, DoN
would be permitted prior to the referendum to conduct exercises on the range for no more
than 90 days a year using only non-explosive ordnance, and the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) would submit a $40-million funding request to Congress to finance
a series of community assistance projects on Vieques. The plan also called for
transferring DoN lands back to civilian use.
Removal of Protestors and Resumption of Training. On May 4, 2000, more
than 300 federal agents moved onto the training range and peacefully removed 216
demonstrators. On May 8, 2000, DoN resumed training operations on the range using
non-explosive ordnance. Hundreds demonstrators attempting to reenter the range on
various dates after May 4, 2000 have been detained and removed by U.S. forces.
Congressional Activity and Legislation in 1999 and 2000. Hearings
devoted to the situation on Vieques were held by the House and Senate Armed Services
Committees on September 22, 1999, and by the Senate Armed Services Committee on
October 19, 1999 (at which the Rush panel report was released). Several bills were
introduced in September and October 1999 that proposed various measures for addressing
the situation. Following the announcement of the Clinton-Rossello plan, Congress in

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2000 debated the merits of the plan and acted on the administration’s request for $40
million in community assistance funding and its proposed land-transfer legislation.
Congress appropriated the $40 million in community assistance funding as part of
H.R. 4425, the FY2001 military construction appropriation and FY2000 supplemental
appropriations bill. The bill was signed into law as P.L. 106-246 on July 13, 2000. The
FY2000 supplemental appropriations portion of the bill (Division B) contains a provision
under the Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide section that provides $40 million
to Vieques for conducting a referendum and for various community and economic
assistance projects. With some exceptions, funds provided under this section of the bill
“shall not become available until 30 days after the Secretary of the Navy has certified to
the congressional defense committees that the integrity and accessibility of the training
range is uninterrupted, and trespassing and other intrusions on the range have ceased.”
The Secretary is to recertify the status of the range 90 days after the initial certification,
and each 90 days thereafter.
Congress authorized the $40 million, provided land-transfer legislation (with terms
modified from those proposed under the Clinton-Rossello plan), and approved other
implementing legislation, as Title XV (Sections 1501-1508) of H.R. 4205, the FY2001
defense authorization bill. (See pages 365-373 and 879-881 of H.Rept. 106-945 of
October 6, 2000, the conference report on H.R. 4205.) H.R. 4205 was signed into law as
P.L. 106-398 on October 30, 2000. Section 1502 provided for the May 1, 2001 transfer
of the ammunition depot on the western end of the island.
Position of Governor Calderon. On November 7, 2000, Puerto Rico elected
a new Governor, Sila Maria Calderon, who took office on January 2, 2001. Calderon did
not support the Clinton-Rossello plan and pledged to take steps that would appear to
break the accord.
Final Clinton Administration Actions. The Clinton Administration warned
Governor Calderon that if Puerto Rico did not fulfill its obligations under the plan, DoN
would no longer be obliged to abide by the results of the November 6, 2001 referendum.
On January 15 and 19, 2001, President Clinton issued two directives concerning Vieques.
The first directed the Department of Health and Human Services to examine a new study
showing that residents of Vieques suffer from a high incidence of vibroacoustic disease,
an ailment affecting the heart and other internal organs. The second directed DoD to find
a long-term alternative to live-fire training on Vieques, on the grounds that voters were
likely to vote in the November 2001 referendum to permanently end training operations.
Initial Bush Administration Actions and Puerto Rican Response. The
Bush Administration initially supported the Clinton-Rossello plan and held private
discussions with Governor Calderon’s office. On March 1, 2000, the Bush Administration
canceled training operations for an aircraft carrier battle group that were scheduled to take
place at Vieques later that month. On April 11, 2001, the Navy notified the Puerto Rican
government of its intention to resume training operations at Vieques using inert ordnance
(as required by the Clinton-Rossello agreement) starting April 27.
In response, Governor Calderon promised to introduce legislation to tighten noise
restrictions in a way that would effectively prohibit the Navy from engaging in ship-to-
shore gunfire. She also accused the Defense Department of violating an understanding

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to suspend training operations on Vieques pending the outcome of independent reviews
of studies on the health-effects of the training.
Calderon introduced the bill and the Puerto Rican Legislature passed it on April 23.
Governor Calderon signed the bill into law, and on April 24, Puerto Rico filed a federal
lawsuit to halt the Navy’s exercise, arguing that the Navy’s training activities would
threaten public health and violate both the new noise-restriction law and the 1972 federal
Noise Control Act. On January 2, 2002, the court dismissed the lawsuit on jurisdictional
grounds, stating that Congress never intended “to create a private action for violations by
a federal entity of the state and local environmental noise requirements.”
New Bush Administration Plan and Reaction. On June 14, 2001, the Bush
Administration announced that it had decided to end military training operations at
Vieques by May 2003. Under the Administration’s plan, DoN was to begin planning for
withdrawal from the island by that date, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was to
appoint a panel of retired military officers and other experts to seek effective training
alternatives to Vieques, and the Defense Department was to seek relief from the
requirement to hold the November 2001 referendum (which was rescheduled for January
2002) by asking Congress to pass legislation cancelling sections 1503, 1504 and 1505(b)
of P.L. 106-398. After May 2003, the DoN-owned land on the eastern end of the island
would be turned over to the Interior Department, which would determine how to clean up
and dispose of the land.
Supporters of the military immediately criticized the Bush Administration’s new plan
on the grounds that it could lead to reduced readiness of U.S. naval forces and complicate
the U.S. ability to maintain access to overseas training ranges in places such as Okinawa
and South Korea. Some opponents of continued military training operations on the island
welcomed the plan because it established with finality that training operations will end
by May 2003, but other opponents of the training operations criticized the plan on the
grounds that it didn’t go far enough – that training operations should end immediately
rather than in May 2003.
Governor Calderon welcomed the plan as far as it went but stated that she still
wanted training operations to end immediately. She proceeded with her plan to hold a
Puerto Rico-sponsored non-binding referendum on July 29 that gave voters on the island
an opportunity to vote in favor of an immediate cessation of training operations – an
option that would not be available at the rescheduled January 2002 referendum to be held
under the Clinton-Rossello plan. In the referendum, which drew 80.6 percent of the
island’s 5,893 registered voters, about 68 percent voted in favor of immediate cessation
of training operations, about 30 percent voted to permit training operations to continue
indefinitely, and about 2 percent voted for training operations to cease by May 2003.
On January 7, 2002, the Secretary of the Navy denied a November 2001 request from
the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and Commandant of the Marine Corps for a Navy
battle group led by the carrier John F. Kennedy to train at Vieques. The decision was
praised by Governor Calderon but criticized by some Members of Congress who support
the military.
Legislation in 2001. The FY2002 defense authorization act (P.L. 107-107 of
December 28, 2001) contains a provision (Section 1049) that (1) canceled the requirement

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for holding the January 2002 referendum; (2) authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to close
the Vieques range, and terminate all Navy and Marine Corps operations at the Roosevelt
Roads naval station that are related exclusively to use of the range, if the Secretary
certifies that “one or more alternative training facilities exist that, individually or
collectively, provide an equivalent or superior level of training” and are immediately
available upon cessation of training on Vieques; (3) requires the Secretary, in making this
determination, to take into account the written views and recommendations of the Chief
of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps; and (4) transfers the
range lands to the Department of the Interior if the range is closed.
Potential Issues for Congress
The Bush Administration’s new plan for resolving the dispute over Vieques raises
potential issues for Congress in the following areas:
! Replacing Vieques. What are the prospects for finding one or more
functionally equivalent alternative training sites to replace Vieques?
How will the loss of Vieques affect the readiness of deploying Atlantic
Fleet naval forces?
! Roosevelt Roads. Much of the DoN presence at the Roosevelt Roads
naval base on mainland Puerto Rico opposite Vieques relates to
managing operations on Vieques. What effect would the end of training
operations on Vieques have on the Navy presence at Roosevelt Roads
and on its economic impact in the surrounding community?
! Access to other ranges. How might the Bush Administration’s plan for
Vieques affect the U.S. ability to maintain access to overseas training
ranges where there is local opposition to U.S. operations, such as
Okinawa or South Korea? Does the plan set a bad precedent for
managing disputes over ranges, and will it encourage other local
populations to step up their opposition to U.S. training activities?
Legislative Activity in 2002
In its report (H.Rept. 107-151 of May 15, 2002) on the FY2003 defense
authorization bill (S. 2514), the Senate Armed Services Committee
directs the Secretary of the Navy to provide a report to the congressional defense
committees on the plans for joint task force, combined-arms training of carrier battle
groups and amphibious ready groups during fiscal year 2003. This report should
include a description of the locations where that training will be conducted, the use
of live munitions during that training, and a description of the naval and military
capabilities to be exercised during training. The report should also describe the
Secretary’s progress regarding the identification of an alternate location or locations
for the training range at Vieques. The committee directs the Secretary to provide this
report no later than March 1, 2003. The committee understands that, until such time
as a decision is made by the Secretary of the Navy in accordance with Section 1049
of [P.L. 107-107], Navy and Marine Corps training will continue at Vieques as it is
currently. (page 311)

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