The 2007 Defense Authorization bill passed Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives includes a provision by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie requiring the Army to plan and prepare for military training after Makua Military Reservation is closed.

The legislation requires the Army to report to Congress no later than March 1, 2007, on its future training range plans in Hawai'i, and alternatives to the use of 4,190-acre Makua Valley.

"The Army's presence in Hawai'i is undergoing tremendous change," said Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i. "Meeting these needs while safeguarding the public's cultural and environmental concerns is essential, and the analysis will help Congress and the people of Hawai'i better understand how to balance the two."

A new Stryker brigade is training on O'ahu, and thousands more troops will be transferred to Hawai'i as part of larger changes in the Pacific-region military structure, he said.

"In particular, this process will address the sensitive issue of the Army's long-term future in Makua Valley, which is owned by the people of Hawai'i," Abercrombie said. "Eventually, the land must be returned, so the Army needs to look beyond its current use to the eventual return of this historic and environmentally sensitive treasure."

Makua Valley has become a lightning rod for controversy and a much-publicized legal battleground for environmentalists and Hawaiian practitioners who oppose military training here.

A federal judge last Feb. 2 rejected an Army bid to resume live-fire training in Makua for Schofield Barracks soldiers now in Iraq, saying the service must abide by federal environmental law requiring a comprehensive study of the effects of more than 60 years of military training in the valley.

The Army agreed under a 2001 court settlement with Earthjustice and the community group Malama Makua to conduct the study. The valley is home to more than 40 endangered species and 100 archaeological features.

The study was supposed to be completed in October 2004, but it's unclear when it will be done.

Abercrombie said Makua Valley "is by everyone's definition an inadequate and essentially dysfunctional training area for the modern Army."