House panel passes amendment to block new round of Pentagon base closures

The House Armed Services Committee passed an amendment in the Defense
authorization bill that prohibits new rounds of the Base Realignment Closure Commission
(BRAC) by a vote of 44 to 18, with 14 Democrats joining Republicans to support it,
and 5 GOP members opposed.

The amendment, offered by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), says that “none of the
funds” in the act “may be used to propose, plan for, or execute an additional
BRAC round.”

{mosads}The committee’s ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) led
the sparse opposition to the amendment, saying that BRAC is unpopular but a
necessary move to cut excess budget costs.

He particularly took issue with the amendment for tying the
hands of the Pentagon to plan for future base closures.

“We just want to protect our stuff, and I understand that’s
what’s driving this,” Smith said at Wednesday’s markup. “To simply cut off the
debate and say DOD can’t do this and can’t even think about it, I think is
irresponsible.”

But Wittman questioned whether now was the time to undergo
new BRAC rounds when the Pentagon is in the midst of cutting $487 billion from
its budget over the next decade, because there are up-front costs associated
with BRAC.

One committee member who opposes BRAC, Rep. John Kline
(R-Minn.), still opposed Wittman’s amendment. Kline, a retired Marine, said he
was concerned about including the words “plan for” in the prohibition on BRAC,
arguing that the military is constantly planning and shouldn’t be stopped from
discussing future base closures.

“Because of those two words I reluctantly can’t support the
amendment,” Kline said.