Vicky Hartzler: “I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for his leadership on this issue as well as for the chairman's support of…”

“I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for his leadership on this issue as well as for the chairman's support of this amendment. Mr. Chairman, now is not the time for BRAC. Due to the passage of the Budget Control Act, our military is facing unprecedented cuts which, I believe, could jeopardize our national defense--maintenance is being deferred; force structure is being reduced to levels we haven't seen since before World War II; training is being deferred as well. A BRAC would siphon precious defense dollars away from our military at a time when the ultimate end strength is uncertain. We should learn from past lessons. We are still paying for the last BRAC. In 2005, a BRAC was approved. It was supposed to cost $21 billion, but in fact, it is actually costing taxpayers $35 billion. We are still paying off the last BRAC. Now is not the time to take the precious dollars that need to be going to our men and women in uniform and spend them on a BRAC, especially when we have not determined the ultimate force end strength at this point. What are we not going to spend money on for our defense if we okay a BRAC? Are our men and women in uniform not going to get the equipment they need? Are we going to cease even more training? Are we going to just mothball further platforms? Are we going to cut the benefits to our military families? We need every dollar in defense right now to go to protect our national defense, not to reduce our future options that we may need.…”