Senators seek to shutter overseas military bases

Senate action on a $1 billion construction budget for overseas military bases will be delayed until "as late in the year as possible" while the Pentagon reviews which Cold War-era installations in western Europe remain useful, Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Tuesday.

Her announcement came at a hearing after U.S. European Commander Gen. James Jones Jr. told the committee that about 20 percent of U.S. installations on the continent will not receive construction money under a revised Pentagon spending proposal for fiscal 2004 because they do not have "enduring" value.

Jones said 402 of 499 installations in the European Theater were deemed "vital" in an internal review that concluded in March. But he said some of them might join the do-not-fund list later in the year.

"We will close unneeded facilities as quickly and feasibly as possible," Jones told the committee.

Some European bases and other facilities are expendable because the protections they provided at the height of the Cold War are no longer needed. Others are outmoded because they do not have adequate training facilities for the Pentagon's envisioned agile, mobile fighting force of the 21st century, Jones said at Tuesday's hearing.

Under questioning by Hutchison and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the general said some assets moved from Europe will be focused on Africa. Jones said largely ungoverned regions of that continent "could become terrorist breeding grounds. I believe that we're going to have to engage more in that theater."

Earlier Tuesday, Hutchison and Feinstein introduced legislation to create an eight-member independent panel to consider closing some overseas bases. The Texas senator said that panel's recommendations would give the Pentagon more flexibility but would not erase the need for a new round of domestic base closings in 2005.