On the recordMay 10, 2012
Today I am announcing my intention to offer an amendment on the Defense authorization bill to reduce our military footprint and spending in Europe. In January, the Pentagon announced that two U.S. Army combat brigade teams would be withdrawn from Europe. I don't think that goes far enough. The current proposal is only a step in the right direction. We should retain only the headquarters and support infrastructure necessary for expeditionary capabilities, and we should withdraw all four combat brigades from Europe. In order for the U.S. military to modernize and move forward towards a more agile strategy, we must close bases in Europe. There is no longer a strategic reason to maintain nearly 80,000 troops in Europe. Additionally, only four of our 28 NATO allies are spending more than 2 percent of their GDP on defense. The reason they can get away with spending so little on defense is that they are relying on the United States to provide it for them. We currently spend 4.7 percent of GDP on defense, but we should have higher priorities for our defense dollars these days than for the defense of Europe. ____________________
