England Airpark & Community

Washington, D.C. -- New Congressional legislative proposals to hold off sequester-mandated cuts to the force structure of the Army for another year is gaining steam in Congress, with a dozen Senators and ten Representatives led by the Louisiana Congressional Delegation signing on to the bipartisan proposal.

WASHINGTON D.C.-- Regional officials are gearing up to meet with national leaders and Pentagon personnel in Washington D.C. April 22-23 in the hopes of keeping civilian and troop strength strong at Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center.

LEESVILLE, La.--Fort Polk Progress is deep into planning for the listening session set for March 3 in Leesville.

LEESVILLE, La.--Fort Polk Progress, in response to the Department of the Army's Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Assessment (SPEA) for Army 2020 Force Structure Realignment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FNSI), released in June, has engaged the services of Business Development Advisors (BDA) to analyze: 1) the economic impact of Fort Polk on surrounding communities in Louisiana, and 2) the expected negative impact of a proposed force reduction of 6,500 troops and Army civilians on the same locations.

The public has one week left to get involved in the fight to spare Fort Polk from major cutbacks.

LEESVILLE, La.--Communities and organizations surrounding Fort Polk have organized letter-signing events to make it as easy as possible for area residents to voice their concerns and help stop a troop reduction at the base.

The events are an effort to gather as many comments as possible in the week leading up to the Aug. 25 deadline for commenting on the Department of the Army's proposal to cut troops at Fort Polk. The following communities will be hosting events:

Fort Polk Progress Chairman Michael Reese announced today that the group's trip to Washington, D.C. July 28-30 was a resounding success.

Members of Fort Polk Progress visited with Senators Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) and David Vitter (R-Louisiana) as well as Congressmen John Fleming (R-LA 4th District) and Vance McAllister (R-LA 5th District) and staff members of Congressmen Bill Cassidy (R-LA 6th District) and Steve Scalise (R-LA 1st District), the current United States House of Representatives Majority Whip. Fort Polk Progress members updated the Louisiana Congressional Delegation on the Army's current process to reduce force structure.

DERIDDER, La.--In a 5:15 press conference Tuesday afternoon, Fort Polk Progress, in conjunction with the City of DeRidder, continued its call to action to elected officials and residents throughout Louisiana and East Texas to respond in force to the Army's Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Assessment released June 26 which analyses the effects of a possible reduction in force b