Political Quotes

“Well-known as ``Military City,'' San Antonio has accomplished a traumatic but successful conversion of Kelly and Brooks Air Force Bases. Now the Pentagon is recommending that we have another round of closures. Let's first guarantee that we apply the same rigorous base review standards to military facilities outside the United States as would apply inside the United States. Today, I offer an amendment acceptable to the committee, similar to the approach recommended by Senators Tester and Hutchison that requires the Department of Defense to thoroughly examine the potential benefits and savings realized by closing outdated or excess overseas military bases. Both the Government Accountability Office and Congressional Budget Office say that maintaining these facilities overseas is far more expensive than our stateside operations. So while many of the 585 military bases that we have around the world may be necessary, let's ensure that the Department thoroughly scrutinizes each of them and verifies that each is essential to our national defense. This was not done adequately in the last round. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and ensure that the Pentagon carefully considers the cost of these overseas installations.”