Defense bill includes short-term ban on civilian planes at Homestead Air Reserve Base
A defense funding bill that passed the U.S. House on Thursday has a bonus for Miami-Dade environmental groups fighting a county push to bring civilian air service to the Homestead Air Reserve Base.
Legislation backed by Miami Republicans, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, bans the base from approving agreements for private air operators through the fall of 2026. Assuming the language passes the U.S. Senate next week, the legislation puts a freeze on a controversy that had environmental groups warning Homestead could become a new cargo air hub around sensitive marshlands and coastal Biscayne Bay.
READ MORE: Taxiway over wetlands: Homestead air base plan raises new concerns for activists
In a statement after the National Defense Authorization Act passed the House, Rubio said Miami-Dade’s pursuit of a civilian air operation at the base came “at the expense of our military readiness. Thankfully, Congress stepped in.”
The latest controversy started in 2020 when Gimenez was still Miami-Dade mayor, and the County Commission passed a resolution instructing his administration to negotiate a deal with the base allowing a private-jet operation on the facility. That sparked alarm by environmental groups warning private jets could lead to cargo planes and pointing to past efforts to bring a large commercial aviation hub there in the 1990s.
Though the county drew up plans for a private-jet facility on the base, no deal came from the resolution. Even so, the possibility of air cargo operations out of Homestead remained a red flag for other environmental debates. When Miami-Dade commissioners last month approved a warehouse complex near Homestead and outside of the Urban Development Boundary, environmental groups warned about potential linkage to a future private cargo operation out of the base.
Rubio opposed the UDB expansion, too, linking it to the proposed civilian operations at the base. “The MIami-Dade County Commission should have never caved to corporate special interests at the expense of our military readiness,” Rubio said Thursday.
After being elected to Congress in 2020, Gimenez joined Rubio and Florida’s other Republican senator, Rick Scott, in sponsoring legislation to ban a civilian-air operation at the Homestead base.
They failed to secure permanent restrictions in the final version of the defense bill, with the ban through Sept. 30, 2026, representing compromise language over general objections in Washington to long-term base restrictions, according to people familiar with the process.
In a statement, Gimenez said the short-term ban means “protection of our strategic interests and protects the precious South Florida ecosystem caught in between Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park.”
Eric Eikenberg, president of the Everglades Foundation, said he was happy to see Washington impose a private-plane ban on the Homestead base, even if it’s just through the fall of 2026 for now.
“This is a significant action taken by the Congress,” Eikenberg said. “You have two national treasures close to this base. This provision protects those sensitive lands.”
In a statement, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she applauds the “efforts to protect both our military strength and the environmental assets that power our local economy.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2022 at 6:56 PM.