Today Ethics Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act Request in regards to government spending in the proposed expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado.

Ethics Watch filed the FOIA to determine whether the Army is violating a congressional funding ban passed by Congress last year and signed into law by President Bush on December 26, 2007, which prohibits any government spending in 2008 on the proposed 414,000-acre expansion of the site northeast of Trinidad.

It has been reported that Kreativo Advertising and Marketing, a Pueblo firm, has been contracted to conduct invitation-only focus groups this month with community members in La Junta and Trinidad regarding the expansion. The Army claims the focus groups are necessary to complete a report on the expansion requested by Senators Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard. The contract to conduct the meetings came from the $500,000 contract the Army has with Booz Allen Hamilton, a public relations firm that has been working on the Piñon Canyon expansion for more than two years.