House subpanel defers base-closing amendments to committee

Deferring base realignment and closure amendments until the full committee meets next week, the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Thursday approved by voice vote its $108 billion portion of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill.

What concerned members during the brief markup session was the issue of base realignment and closures.

"Obviously, BRAC as an issue is in order for consideration today, and we will take up the matter if one of us insists upon doing so," said Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo.

Hefley asked the panel to consider members who were not fortunate enough to be on the subcommittee and urged them to wait and present their BRAC amendments to the full committee.

"For the past few years, the subcommittee has supported a delay in this process [BRAC]," Hefley said. "We were unsuccessful, and I now like to use the expression, 'The train has left the station.'"

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to release his BRAC recommendations Friday, triggering the first round in 10 years. The previous four base closing rounds occurred between 1988 and 1995.

Readiness Subcommittee ranking member Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, disagreed with Rumsfeld's contention that the Defense Department has a 25 percent excess in military installations, and that instituting this BRAC round will save about $9 billion.

Recommending another round at this time "is opening up a big can of worms," said Ortiz, who is a member of the Overseas Base Closing Commission which wants to slow down the BRAC process. "We don't know if we have enough room [in the United States]," Ortiz said. "What is going to happen is troops are going to compete for air, training, and housing."

Because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, "most of our training and depot facilities don't have excess capacity. And in all my years in Congress, I haven't seen BRAC saving one penny," Ortiz said.

The subcommittee also plans to work out a compromise on an amendment offered by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., to increase congressional oversight of Defense Department efforts to stop undocumented immigrants from entering military training areas near international borders. Davis withdrew the amendment in the face of opposition from subcommittee members, especially Hefley.

"I reluctantly oppose the amendment, but we will come up with a solution to satisfy everybody," Hefley said.

It also approved on voice vote a group of amendments proposed by Reps. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., and Gene Taylor, D-Miss., to authorize up to $1 million funding for certain Paralympic events -- Olympics for disabled athletes -- and authorizing a report on Defense Department food service vendors. The subcommittee draft transferred $1.5 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget request to pay for costs associated with the war on terrorism.