A delegation from Riley County including Mayor Butler, Commissioner Jankovich, Riley County Commissioner Boyd and members of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce recently visited Washington D.C. for the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Conference. The conference is an annual event, where representatives are able to talk to the Army about issues relating to their communities.

There was a strong presence to support Fort Riley, with KSU ROTC, Geary County and Junction City also attending the conference. Six previous commanding generals that have served at Ft. Riley that are now 3 and 4 star Generals also came to show their support of The Big Red 1.

“We’re there to show strong support of Ft. Riley,” said Ron Fehr, Manhattan City Manager, who also attended the conference. “We’re with them as they deploy the headquarters to Iraq and Kuwait. They chose The Big Red 1 (to deploy) because they have confidence in them, so we reiterated that support.”

The delegation also spent time on Capital Hill, meeting with military liaisons of Senator Moran, Senator Roberts and Congressman Huelskamp. The biggest issues discussed were the possible sequestration of the Army and funding for the NBAF site. The delegation made it known to the liaisons that the sequestration would have a large economic impact on the area.

“Another round of sequestration, especially for the army, would be devastating,” Fehr said. “They were able to make things work in the first round, but the second round will ‘cut past the bone’ as officials have put it.”

The delegation did return with good news regarding the remaining $300 million Congress would need to appropriate to finish the NBAF lab.

“It sounded pretty confident that it was going to happen in an omnibus bill in December, after the elections and before the new Congress takes shape.” Fehr said.

Construction on the NBAF central utility plant is over halfway finished, and is on schedule to be finished in the spring.