Liz Saville Roberts: “Let me go on with a little background about this because I want the Senator to understand how serious the situation is…”

“Let me go on with a little background about this because I want the Senator to understand how serious the situation is in Kansas. Should this $3.1 billion deficit be allowed to move forward and become law, soldiers in Kansas and many other States will suffer greatly. As I said before, $375 billion--I have been saying $365 billion. I am $10 billion short--$375 million worth of Kansas BRAC-related projects will be put at risk, and there are even more projects at risk in future years if the operational tempo of the Army is disrupted. I wish to be sure all of our colleagues understand exactly what this shortfall could mean--as it would be in Texas or Oklahoma or any State--what this would mean to our men and women in uniform and their families based in our respective States. The Combat Aviation Brigade, which is coming to Fort Riley, KS, as a result of the BRAC process, is in danger of losing $152 million for a complex that will house their barracks, their office space, their hangars, their fueling aprons, and their crash rescue fire station. This unit, this aviation brigade, is going to deploy to Iraq soon, and they need these facilities when they return. The commanding general at Fort Riley, General Carter Hamm, told me yesterday that if the aviation brigade comes home in 2008 to find these projects incomplete, they will have to live in dated facilities. What do I mean by dated facilities? We call them the white elephant barracks. They have holes in the walls.”