Rep. Corrine Brown: “I rise in opposition to any attempts to weaken our national defense through another round of base closing. Another round…”

“I rise in opposition to any attempts to weaken our national defense through another round of base closing. Another round of base closing will subject the future of our national defense to a political and arbitrary process of back-room-deals and broken promises. All of the past BRAC rounds have been full of last-minute games, empty promises, false cost savings and unreliable data. At a time when our nation has been attacked by terrorist forces, further base closures would make our country look weak and further undermine the security of the American people. Closing additional military installations will make our remaining bases easier targets. Why should we be shutting down existing bases when we are only beginning to understand the extent of our enemies' evil wishes? Why should we be shutting down existing bases when we are still learning of our enemies' ability to completely surprise even our best defenses? Why should we be shutting down existing bases when we need all of our people and materials to fight against the terrorist enemy? I rise in strong opposition to another round of base closing and encourage our conferees to do the same.”