Patty Murray proposes $11 million new safety complex at Spokane’s Fairchild Air Force Base…

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray says she’s included $11 million in a senate spending bill for a new “Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape” training facility at Fairchild Air Force Base.

The SERE training teachers aviators what to do to avoid capture and survive if downed behind enemy lines. The current training facility is more than 50 years old, Murray said, and increasingly outdated. Maintenance alone on the buildings costs more than $140,000 a year, she said.

The bill is the 2010 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding bill. It now heads to the Senate appropriations committee for consideration.