[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 98 (Friday, July 11, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. MAX SANDLIN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 1997

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2016) making 
     appropriations for military construction, family housing, and 
     base realignment and closure for the Department of Defense 
     for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1998, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. SANDLIN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to compliment the Appropriations 
Military Construction Subcommittee for not funding additional rounds of 
the Base Realignment and Closure [BRAC] process. Several of my 
colleagues from Texas and I have been advocating zero-funding for BRAC 
and I am pleased the committee agrees with me.
  The fact is, the last 4 rounds of the BRAC process have resulted in 
the closing of 97 defense installations in the United States. And yet 
today, we are still unable to fully assess the impact of the closures. 
We have not seen a report or complete assessment of how the closures 
affect military preparedness. We do not know the amount of actual 
savings, if any, generated from the closures. And yet we do know that 
we have spent a lot of money to close these bases. According to the 
Department of Defense, by the year 2000, we will have spent 
approximately $23 billion in cleanup and other costs associated with 
closing these bases.
  Members, not funding additional rounds of BRAC makes sense. By not 
funding additional rounds of BRAC, we are saying ``let's look before we 
leap.'' Congress does not need to continue to spend the taxpayer's 
money on BRAC until we know if we have actually saved money by closing 
these bases; how much of the taxpayer's money has been spent closing 
these bases; and how the closure of bases has affected our country's 
military preparedness. This bill will allow us to make those 
assessments in a responsible and effective manner.

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