Dianne Feinstein: “Specifically, what we are trying to do with this amendment are two simple things: modify the 2005 base closure round to…”

“Specifically, what we are trying to do with this amendment are two simple things: modify the 2005 base closure round to make it apply solely to military installations outside the United States. As Senator Snowe said, we need to begin to look at the 700 operations and installations we have around the globe and make some decisions with respect to them in this new asymmetrical war on terror we face. Secondly, provide for expedited consideration of a request for a domestic base closure round in 2007. I thought the Senator made the excellent point that Congress authorized the 2005 base closure round in 2001. Our military and our Nation have been confronted by several new challenges since that time: 9/11, the war on terror, the overthrow of the Taliban and the Hussein regime, and the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq. We now know our enemy may well be rogue states, may well be nonstate entities who seek to find weapons of mass destruction. They may well be international groups which have replaced the Soviet Union as the greatest threat to American interests and security.”