Hefley Requests BRAC Be Delayed Until 2007

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

===========================================================
Domains as low as $4.95! 
Limited Time! ICANN Accredited GoDaddy! 
http://click.topica.com/caaccM5aVxieSa8wsBba/ GoDaddy
===========================================================

For Immediate Release:
May 6, 2004  Contact:
 Harald Stavenas
Angela Sowa
(202) 225-2539
Sarah Shelden (Hefley)
(202) 225-4422

Statement of Chairman Joel Hefley
Markup on H.R. 4200
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005

Good morning. Welcome to the Readiness subcommittee mark-up of H.R.
4200, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005.

The Chairman?s mark before all of you is the result of considerable
collaboration with the ranking member, the Honorable Solomon Ortiz. I
would like to thank Mr. Ortiz for his friendship and hard work
throughout this session. The subcommittee has held hearings on the
readiness of our military forces, joint training, logistics
transformation, military construction, and base closure.

Without question, the United States military is today experiencing an
extraordinary level of stress. Our nation is at war. The Department of
Defense (DOD) is considering significant realignments of forces in
Europe and Asia. And throughout it all, our military is attempting to
transform its forces.

These factors, among others, led Mr. Ortiz and me to reach the same
conclusion: 2005 is the wrong time for our nation to conduct an
effective and fully informed round of base closures.

Included in the mark before the members today is a provision that would
suspend the BRAC process until 2007. The provision would require the
Department of Defense to submit reports on a number of absolutely
critical ­ yet still unresolved ­ infrastructure-related issues,
such as the Department?s plans for global basing and transformation.

These reports would be due between October 2005 and the end of December
2005. Eighteen months later ­ leaving sufficient time for
congressional review and DOD implementation into the BRAC
decision-making process ­ the Secretary of Defense could proceed with
submission of BRAC recommendations. As a result, the BRAC process would
resume between April and July 2007.

Why delay the BRAC round until 2007? The fact is that it would be
irresponsible to make irreversible base closure decisions with so many
significant issues remaining unresolved.

How will transformation affect the infrastructure needs of our
military? How will transformational changes in the active and reserve
forces change training, housing, and operating requirements? How will
the war against terrorism affect our overseas basing footprint? How will
plans to return thousands of military personnel home from Europe and
Asia affect training, operating, and basing requirements? How will the
requirement to defend the homeland change our domestic basing needs?

For DOD to make informed BRAC decisions that result in an effective
military basing footprint, most ­ if not all ­ of these issues must
first be resolved. We cannot afford to close a base in the 2005 BRAC
round only to discover in 2010 that the assets at that base were both
irreplaceable and, now, lost forever.

Members of this committee have also been told that BRAC is necessary to
allow DOD to reset its forces as it draws down our overseas military
presence. While it may be "convenient" for DOD to roll these decisions
into BRAC, doing so will effectively eliminate Congress from the
decision-making process. As members charged with oversight of the
Department of Defense, we should all be concerned by this approach.

Finally, to those who are concerned that a two year delay will put our
nation?s military communities through two additional years of worry
about BRAC, I sympathize with your concerns. However, I would point out
that many of our communities are only now taking actions to improve the
likelihood that their military installations are not closed in 2005. And
yet, under the current BRAC timeline, many of these actions are coming
too late for consideration. Another two years would actually give many
of these communities a chance to complete their efforts, and would give
DOD more time to measure and reap the benefits of their actions.

Despite any criticism we may receive, I hope that the Administration
will consider this subcommittee?s actions as reflective of our genuine
concern for our nation?s military. The language we have included in
the mark is not a political stunt, nor is it an effort to kill BRAC
forever. To the contrary, it is the right thing for this committee, and
our nation, to do.


###
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
----
 House Armed Services Committee
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aimee R. Houghton
Associate Director, CPEO
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20036
tel: 202-452-8039; fax: 202-452-8095
Email: aimeeh@cpeo.org
www.cpeo.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

===========================================================
Buy Stocks and Index Funds for just $4 No Account or 
Investment Minimums and No Inactivity Fees Automatically 
invest weekly or monthly and build your future. 
http://click.topica.com/caaccMMaVxieSa8wsBbf/ Sharebuilder
===========================================================

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CPEO: A DECADE OF SUCCESS.  Your generous support will ensure that our 
important work on military and environmental issues will continue.  
Please consider one of our donation options.  Thank you.
http://www.groundspring.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2086-0|721-0