Chuck Grassley: “this table breaks the infrastructure costs into nine distinct categories. The new General Accounting Office data shows…”

“this table breaks the infrastructure costs into nine distinct categories. The new General Accounting Office data shows major increases in every category, with one important exception, and that would be installation support. Even installation support shows increases in the outyears. The four BRAC commissions proposed closing 97 bases. Yet, installation support costs are projected to rise. I think it is legitimate to ask why. Is it because few, if any, of those bases have really been closed? The downstream savings promised by base closings and a shrinking force structure should be reflected in these numbers, but they are not. We should be able to identify where the savings are. I do not expect to see any savings. We will not ever see those savings unless we hold the Department's feet to the fire. A comparison of the numbers in the fiscal year 1996 future year defense plan with the numbers in the 1997 future year defense plan suggests that installation support figures on table 1 are misleading. That comparison reveals a shocking trend. That comparison suggests that base support costs will actually increase by $1 billion per year between the years 1997 and the year 2001. Take fiscal year 1997 just for example. The fiscal year 1997 column in the 1996 future year defense plan shows installation costs at $23.96 billion. Then if you go over to the fiscal year 1997 column, in the the 1997 future year defense plan, the number goes up to $25.1 billion.”