John Thune: “if I could respond to the very distinguished chairman of our committee. And I do appreciate his leadership on our…”

“if I could respond to the very distinguished chairman of our committee. And I do appreciate his leadership on our committee. I appreciate his sensitivity to the impact that these decisions are going to have on communities all across this country. But I would also submit that when the conditions are met, a timeline should not be a prerequisite where national security is involved. This is the exact same argument we are now making with respect to our involvement in Iraq, that we cannot subscribe to a specific timeline. It is a conditions-based approach that we are adopting there. This would simply say that these are conditions that, when they are met, would trigger that next step in the BRAC process, which ultimately is the approval by this body. It comes back to the Congress. The Congress would have an opportunity, then, after they have evaluated the recommendations in the QDR, after they have gotten a better handle on that and the Defense Department has had a chance to review the recommendations with respect to overseas basing needs and we have gotten a better idea about what our domestic needs are going to be when these troops start returning to this country. I think those are conditions for which at this point in time it is unwise for us to be moving forward at this fast pace.…”