Jim Inhofe: “I think we all know certain things are true and incontrovertible. One is that a base closing is a very difficult thing…”

“I think we all know certain things are true and incontrovertible. One is that a base closing is a very difficult thing to do politically and a very difficult thing to endure as a Member of the U.S. Senate or a Member of the other body, because people look to us and they look to us and say, ``You are responsible for saving what we have here.'' I am not eloquent enough to describe the anguish that people go through, that cities go through, that counties and the States go through during a BRAC process. They go out and they hire consultant after consultant and they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. They go through all of this and, finally, the recommendations come down. We have gone through that in 1991, 1993 and 1995, and it was necessary. It was, I guess, the Army that came up with the initial idea that we try to eliminate excess capacity and infrastructure. But we haven't been able to do it because politically it can't be done. There is no better evidence of that than what is happening today.”