Frank Pallone: “let me say initially I do not believe in the BRAC. I have opposed every BRAC initially from the very beginning, and I…”

“let me say initially I do not believe in the BRAC. I have opposed every BRAC initially from the very beginning, and I have been here in Congress 18 years. The reason I do not believe in BRAC was somewhat articulated by the previous speaker. I think it is a abrogation of Congress' responsibility. There is no reason why we cannot make these decisions, and to give these decisions to an independent commission, I think, is just a cop-out on our part. So I want to start out with that. I also want to say in this particular round in 2005, I strongly disapproved of the BRAC even more so than in the past because we are in a war in Iraq. You do not shut down, in my opinion, military infrastructure at a time of war. I think this BRAC in particular is poorly timed and ill advised. Now, the 2005 round of BRAC also was done hastily, in my opinion, with very little regard to the actual warfighter. A number of bases with great functional value are being shut down in the name of savings. I do not believe anyone at the Department of Defense or any member of the BRAC Commission actually believes that this round of BRAC will actually save us any money, and I listened to many of the BRAC hearings. I am also truly disappointed because I believed that the BRAC ultimately would try to be an independent broker and that the commission would review each facility, analyze the data, and come to conclusions based on facts. I do not think that was the case. The opposite was the case.…”