[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S5495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself and Mrs. Feinstein):
  S. 949. A bill to establish a commission to assess the military 
facility structure of the United States overseas, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Armed Services.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, today Senator Feinstein and I are 
introducing the ``Overseas Military Facility Structure Review Act'' to 
establish a congressional panel to conduct a detailed study of U.S. 
military facilities overseas. This bill creates a bipartisan 
congressional commission charged with undertaking an objective and 
thorough review of our overseas basing structure. The commission will 
consider a host of criteria to determine whether our overseas bases are 
prepared to meet our needs in the 21st Century. The commission will be 
comprised of national security and foreign affairs experts who will 
present their findings to the 2005 domestic Base Realignment and 
Closure, BRAC, Commission, providing a comprehensive analysis of our 
worldwide base and force structure.
  We believe it is important to determine our overseas basing 
requirements, assess training constraints, and provide recommendations 
on future realignments. As a result, we are proposing legislation that 
would create a congressional Overseas Basing Commission to review our 
basing strategy to ensure that it is consistent with both our short- 
and long-term national security objectives. We believe the time is 
right to move forward with a more structured approach to reviewing 
these overseas bases.
  Such a review is timely. The 2005 BRAC is just around the corner and 
some in the Pentagon have suggested it could result in the closure of 
nearly one out of every four domestic bases. Before we close stateside 
military bases, we must first analyze our overseas infrastructure. If 
we reduce our overseas presence, we need stateside bases to station 
returning troops. It is senseless to close bases on U.S. soil in 2005 
only to determine a few years later that we made a costly, irrevocable 
mistake. A painful lesson we learned in the last rounds of closures.
  Though our military force structure has decreased since the Cold War, 
the responsibilities placed upon our service members have significantly 
increased. While operational effectiveness is paramount, it would be 
irresponsible to build on an inefficient, obsolete overseas base 
structure, as we face new strategic threats in the 21st century, taking 
valuable dollars needed elsewhere.

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