Senate defeats effort to delay base closings
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday narrowly defeated a proposal that would have delayed the next round of domestic base closings until the Pentagon determines what it wants to do with its overseas facilities.
The 49-47 vote was a victory for the Pentagon, which opposes any delay in next year’s round of base closings. The proposal, by Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., was made as an amendment to a bill authorizing $422.2 billion in defense programs next year.
But the House this week will consider a two-year delay in base closings as part of its version of the defense bill. Last year, the White House threatened a veto if the plans were delayed.
Base closings have long been a politically charged issue in Congress, where lawmakers fear the economic damage that could occur in their states and districts.
Dorgan said the Pentagon won’t know what domestic bases it will need until it decides what it will do overseas.
“You’re going to bring 50,000 Army troops from Germany back to American soil – where are you going to put them?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you want to make those decisions before you have a base closing decision here for domestic bases?”
Defense Department officials see the base closings as a necessary cost-cutting measure at a time of tight budgets. Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee agreed with them that the closings are needed as part of an overall restructuring of the military.
“How can we reconfigure our military, which I think everybody recognizes is necessary in a new world of new threats, when we freeze into place the infrastructure that we have in this country?” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
Under current law, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is required to submit his list of recommended closures and realignments to an independent commission by May 16, 2005. The commission members are to be appointed early next year by the president and Congress. In a recent report, Rumsfeld said that if the closures result in a 20 percent reduction of capacity, the Pentagon could save about $5 billion in 2011 and $8 billion a year after that.
The House and Senate versions of the bill would authorize defense spending that is $20.9 billion, or about 5.2 percent, more than the $401.3 billion authorized last year. The bills include $25 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first months of the budget year, which begins Oct. 1.
Both versions of the bill offer improved compensation for soldiers, especially those in combat areas. Pay would increase 3.5 percent, family separation allowances would go to $250 a month from $100 and imminent danger pay would rise to $225 from $150.
The House bill would also add 30,000 Army soldiers and 9,000 Marines over three years. The Senate version would give the Army the flexibility to add 30,000, but wouldn’t require it to do so. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. is pushing an amendment that would require the Army to add 20,000 soldiers next year.
The two versions of the bill will have to be reconciled eventually by House and Senate negotiators. The bills only authorize defense programs; the actual spending would have to be approved in separate appropriations bills.