May 13, 2005
Fox News
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department on Friday proposed shutting down 150 military installations, including 33 of the 318 major military bases across the country.
The proposal triggers the first round of base closures in a decade and kicks off an intense struggle by communities and lawmakers to save their facilities.
Aside from the 33 bases recommended for closure, another 29 based are being recommended for realignment. More than 100 other smaller military installations, including National Guard and Reserve facilities, will also be closed, according to the recommendations
For a complete list of the closures and realignments, click here (pdf).
"Today's announcement is a very important component of the military transformation President Bush asked us to conduct in 2001," Michael Wynne, defense undersecretary for acquisition, said during a press conference Friday in announcing the recommendations.
The Pentagon's list merely comprises recommendations. The list then goes to a nine-member commission that will review it, travel to those installations and discuss the potential closings with community members.
The panel is known as the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission. Lawmakers likely will lobby the BRAC commission in an effort to keep some of their districts' bases open. In the end, the BRAC list must be approved by President Bush. The entire process likely will run into the fall.
In four previous rounds of closures starting in 1988, BRAC commissions have accepted 85 percent of bases the Pentagon recommended for closure or consolidation.
The Pentagon's list was delivered to Capitol Hill earlier Friday morning for distribution to lawmakers.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said the move would save $48.8 billion over 20 years while reshaping the military for America's expected 21st century adversaries.
Rumsfeld's plan calls for a massive shift of U.S. forces that would result in a net loss of 29,005 military and civilian jobs at domestic installations. Overall, he proposes pulling 218,570 military and civilian positions out of some U.S. bases while adding 189,565 positions to others.
The closures and downsizings would occur over six years starting in 2006.
"Our current arrangements, designed for the Cold War, must give way to the new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving 21st century challenges," Rumsfeld said in a news release obtained by the Associated Press.
The BRAC process was revived in the late 1980s with the idea of cutting waste and maximizing the effectiveness of taxpayers' dollars. This is the fifth round of BRAC; the last was in 1995.
In previous rounds, 97 out of 522 major bases were closed, saving an estimated $29 billion. This year's cuts were expected to be even bigger, but U.S. military officials are planning to move some 70,000 personnel currently based in Europe and Asia back to the United States.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Friday that the president was aware of the base closures and said the administration supports the process established by the Defense Department as to what happens next.
"This is the recommendation by the secretary of defense. There is a process in place, and there are steps in the process. It will now go to the [BRAC] commission. Then it will go to the president after that," McClellan said.
"Our focus is on the communities, as well, that will be affected" and the resources they will need to transition, he added.
Among the major closures is Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, home to 29 B-1B bombers, half the nation's fleet of the aircraft, and the state's second-largest employer. That would deal a potential political setback to Republican freshman Sen. John Thune, who had claimed he could protect the base if elected during his campaign to defeat former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.
Rumsfeld also recommended closing the Naval Station in Pascagoula, Miss., which barely survived previous base closure rounds. The decision was a blow to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who had fought the 1995 round of closures. At stake are 844 military jobs and 112 civilian jobs.
"I think we have quite a few bases that may be closed in addition to what we have here," Ret. U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen Burton Moore told FOX News. "After the Berlin Wall fell and after the fall of the Soviet Union, we reaped the peace dividends and we reaped it again after the Gulf War I" when the United States was able to reduce its structure due to fairly peaceful times.
"There's been a drawdown" but not enough of one, he added.
Some lawmakers wasted no time in protesting some of the recommendations.
"I am shocked by the Pentagon's decision this morning to target the sub base here in New London for closure," Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Ct., said Friday, referring to the Submarine Base New London. "It is wrong. It is shortsighted. And it is cruel and unusual punishment that Connecticut does not deserve and our national security cannot afford."
He added: "We pledge to fight tooth and nail to overturn this decision. Today is not the end of the road — not even the end of the beginning. We stand here, united, in our steadfast commitment to take the fight to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission and remove the sub base from the list."
FOX News' Mike Emanuel and Liza Porteus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156430,00.html