On the recordJuly 13, 2010
I rise today to talk about our military construction program and some concerns I have about an apparent shift in strategy, what this means for our American soldiers and their families and for the growing debt and deficits we are seeing on the taxpayers of this country. Without question, our military construction program should be fiscally responsible and driven by the future security posture of the U.S. forces. Dating back to the end of the Cold War, the U.S. military determined that our Armed Forces would be best trained and equipped for service when stationed at installations on U.S. soil. Our military adopted a force projection strategy that allows our U.S.-stationed service men and women to deploy from home rather than being based primarily overseas. This Congress has been very supportive of the Army's transformation to a more modular and expeditionary force structure, allowing more troops to be stationed in the United States. In 2005, the Overseas Basing Commission reaffirmed the force projection strategy.
