House committee votes for base closings in 2005

As it continued its marathon markup of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday voted to restore the 2005 round of military base closings.

Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., referred to another part of the debate over the bill, involving the Pentagon's run-ins with the Endangered Species Act, in overturning a vote of the Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee that would have canceled the next round of closings. He said his amendment to restore the closings would protect an endangered species-"Americans who go out and fight and die for freedom."

Committee Republicans turned back an attempt by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., to delay the next round of decisions until 2007. Even though Hunter was successful in that endeavor, he said language in the amendment that requires officials to keep open bases that might be necessary if there is a surge in the need for U.S. troops could result in few or no bases being closed in the next round.

Democrats railed against several provisions of the authorization bill, saying Congress was giving away its oversight authority to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush.

Hunter argued that killing the base-closing round would cause Bush to veto the bill and would make the committee irrelevant. Rumsfeld emphasized that point while talking to reporters following his appearance before the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee today.

"If [the Base Realignment and Closure process] is changed in any substantial way, I will recommend that the president veto" the defense authorization bill, Rumsfeld said.

But Hunter's logic did not assuage at least one Democrat, Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii. "What I'm hearing is we have to give away our authority to keep our authority," Abercrombie said. While Rumsfeld is saying "do what I want or else," Abercrombie continued, the committee "is engaged in a fiction here. We're not living up to our responsibilities."