Senate says no to delay on bases

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday narrowly defeated a proposal that would have delayed the next round of domestic base closings until the Pentagon determines what it wants to do with its overseas facilities.

The 49-47 vote was a victory for the Pentagon, which opposes any delay in next year's round of base closings. The proposal, by Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., was made as an amendment to a bill authorizing $422.2 billion in defense programs next year.

But the House this week will consider a two-year delay in base closings as part of its version of the defense bill. Last year, the White House threatened a veto if the plans were delayed.

Base closings have long been a politically charged issue in Congress, where lawmakers fear the economic damage that could occur in their states and districts.

Dorgan said the Pentagon won't know what domestic bases it will need until it decides what it will do overseas.

"You're going to bring 50,000 Army troops from Germany back to American soil — where are you going to put them?" he asked. "Wouldn't you want to make those decisions before you have a base closing decision here for domestic bases?"

That reasoning coincides with comments made by Rick Mayfield, executive director of the Utah Defense Alliance. Mayfield said one of his Washington, D.C., contacts told him language in the Senate bill calls for an examination of how many foreign bases will be closed and how many troops would be brought back to the United States before the BRAC process goes forward.

He said delaying the BRAC process does more harm to Utah than good. "If it is postponed two years, it just delays the agony" and puts businesses in limbo, he said.

"I'd rather have them get going and get it over with and the sooner the better," Mayfield said.

Defense Department officials see the base closings as a necessary cost-cutting measure at a time of tight budgets. Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee agreed with them that the closings are needed as part of an overall restructuring of the military.

"How can we reconfigure our military, which I think everybody recognizes is necessary in a new world of new threats, when we freeze into place the infrastructure that we have in this country?" said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.