Russ Feingold: “I was disappointed to read language in the committee report accompanying the fiscal year 1998 Defense authorization bill…”

“I was disappointed to read language in the committee report accompanying the fiscal year 1998 Defense authorization bill which called upon the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences [USUHS] to propose the construction of an additional building on the USUHS campus. While I fully appreciate such language is not binding, the provision is a clear invitation to the controversial school to expand the physical plant of a program which many already consider to be costly. More particularly, the provision is inconsistent with the view of a number of Members of Senate and the other body that USUHS not only should not be expanded, but instead should be terminated. That view is shared by others as well. The Department of Defense has proposed phasing out this school, and proposals to close the school have also been offered by the Congressional Budget Office [CBO], the Grace Commission, and the National Performance Review. Mr. President, USUHS is the most expensive source of physicians for our military, according to CBO costing 4 to 10 times as much as other sources and supplying only a tiny fraction of the needs of the Pentagon for new physicians--less than 12 percent in 1994. Expanding the physical plant of a program that is already 4 to 10 times as expensive as alternative sources of physicians for our military makes no sense, and is inconsistent with both the increasing pressure on the Defense Department's budget and our efforts to balance the budget.”