Think tanks press Congress, Pentagon on base closures, compensation

“While we do not all agree on the best approach to reform in
each case, we agree that if these issues are not addressed, they will gradually
consume the defense budget from within.”

{mosads}The think tanks included on the letter represent a range of
policy views, from the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute to
the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress.

The letter highlights a level of frustration among defense observers with the debate
that has surrounded the Defense budget over the past two years, thanks, in part, to sequestration. 

This year’s
budgets in both Congress and from the Pentagon do not take the budget caps
under sequestration into account for 2014, and the Pentagon’s request for base
closures and new healthcare fees have been routinely rejected by Congress.  

“Those of us who have joined together in support of these
efforts find ourselves with differing views on many other issues, including the
proper level of defense spending and how that money can best be allocated, they
wrote. “But we are all in strong agreement on the need to pursue these key
reforms for a transforming military.”

The other think tanks represented on the letter are the Center for a New American Security, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Foreign Policy Initiative, the National Security Network, the Stimson Center, the Brookings Institution and the CATO Institute.