[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     ON THE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE OF AMERICA'S MILITARY READINESS

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                          HON. J. RANDY FORBES

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 2002

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I am very distraught today over the 
inclusion of a Base Realignment and Closure provision in last year's 
National Defense Authorization Act. I do not buy into so-called BRAC 
`success' stories. I will be the first to stand up and congratulate 
sound accounting of our taxpayers' money, however, BRAC does not 
represent sound accounting. The truth of the matter is that reducing 
military construction for Fiscal Year 2003 will not solve the Army's 
financial problems. Furthermore, according to the Government Accounting 
Office, BRAC cost and savings estimates are imprecise. According to the 
Congressional Research Service, in the early years of the past four 
rounds of BRAC, base closure costs greatly exceeded savings. On more 
than a few occasions, facilities that were closed under BRAC were 
needed again, and in some cases, reopened. In 2005, the bases spared by 
the next round of BRAC will still need the same improvements, but in 
the meantime, the decision to freeze construction at bases that might 
be BRACed will only hurt our people living there--hurt our soldiers and 
their families. We need to protect our soldiers' families. And just as 
we need to protect them from terrorists, we also need to protect them 
from the elements--from Mother Nature who reminds them just how leaky 
their roofs are. We need to protect them from being uprooted in the 
name of savings that will not materialize for a decade and may, in all 
actuality, never materialize.
  A few weeks ago First Lieutenant Tallas Tomeny was killed in the line 
of duty. I extend my condolences to his family. While we mourn the loss 
of all of our soldiers, this loss is so much sadder because Lieutenant 
Tomeny was not killed in Afghanistan, or the Balkans, or Egypt, or 
Korea, or any of the other numerous places our soldiers are stationed 
around the world. He was killed in North Carolina during an exercise 
held off base, and he was shot by a Sheriff s deputy who mistook him 
for a criminal. While we sit here and continue to talk about closing 
Vieques and continue to talk about closing bases, a soldier has lost 
his life because his training was being held in a civilian community 
instead of on a military training area. We need to reconsider the 
decision to close facilities where our forces can train safely.

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