Letter from Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell to Chairman Principi Page: 2 of 3
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AUG. 31, 2005 7:30PM OFFICE OF ADMIN GOVERNOR SUITE NO. 1494 P. 2
The Honorable Anthony J. Principi
August 31, 2005
Page 2
the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Moreover, those states
have successfully obtained or are now in the process of obtaining temporary restraining
orders prohibiting the Commission from including in its final report the Secretary's
recommendations relating to particular National Guard units. While we reserve our right
to seek, now, or at a subsequent point in the BRAC process, injunctive relief enforcing
Judge Padova's declaratory judgment, we are hopeful that it will not be necessary to do
so, for two reasons.
First, we are confident that the Commission will regard and not ignore Judge
Padova's ruling. As the United States Supreme Court noted in Franklin v. Massachusetts,
505 U.S. 788 (1992), federal agencies have an interest in acting lawfully, whether or not
they are parties to actions that adjudicate questions relating to the scope of their power.
For that reason, the Court assumes that "it is substantially likely that the President and
other executive and congressional officials would abide by an authoritative interpretation
of [a federal] statute and constitutional provision by the District Court, even though they
would not be directly bound by such a determination." Id. at 804.
Second, we are confident that the situation at Willow Grove can be remedied
without upsetting the wider BRAC process. We respectfully urge the Commission to
include in its final report language providing that the 11 1th Fighter Wing should retain
sufficient A-10 aircraft to maintain a meaningful flying mission now and for the
foreseeable future. This could be accomplished with little, if any, disruption to the
Commission's other recommendations because the aircraft could come from among the
twelve A-10s currently slated for retirement and/or from adjustments of aircraft in excess
of Primary Assigned Aircraft (PAA) maintained by all A-10 units. Should the
Commission agree with this proposal, Governor Rendell specifically reaffirms the
willingness and dedication of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard to operate Willow
Grove as an Air National Guard base once the Navy leaves at some future date.
Accordingly, we recommend that the Commission include the following language
in its report to the President:
The Commission recommends that DoD take affirmative
action to assign an optimum number ofA-1O aircraft to the
lll th Fighter Wing, Pennsylvania Air National Guard. By
assigning these aircraft to the 111th Fighter Wing,
significant resources for recruitment and training of
aircrews and maintenance personnel will be saved. This
can be accomplished either by DoD not retiring 12 service
capable A-JO aircraft and by allocating them to the 11IhFighter Wing or by the DoD taking action to provide A-JO
aircraft to form a fifth A-1O wing using the 111th Fighter
Wing of the Air National Guard located at Willow Grove,
Pennsylvania.
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Letter from Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell to Chairman Principi, letter, September 1, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc23600/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.