Senator Kennedy has joined with a number of his colleagues in the Senate to require some accountability of Secretary Rumsfeld (
transcript of Rumsfeld's testimony) and the BRAC Commission in their decisions on base closures. I've included the "official" list of criteria that are evaluated at each base, which could be described as "abstract" at best. I've also included a link to show where "Regional Hearings" will be held in early June to make decisions about the closures.
The Senators are looking for detailed reasons why certain bases were selected for closure, so that as final decisions get made, the communities that are going to be affected by the closurs have the chance to fight them. This letter is signed by a bi-partisan group of Senators - a number of whom are clearly not favorites around here. The important thing to remember is that these closures are really about the people who will lose jobs, and the holes that will be left in the communities where these bases are located after they're gone.
BRAC Selection Criteria (pdf)
Regional Hearings
*The following letter will be sent to Secretary Rumsfeld today*
May 26, 2005
The Honorable Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301-4000
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld:
We are deeply concerned that the Pentagon has failed to release the installation-specific data that it used to prepare its recommendations under the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (as amended). The Department has proposed a list of military bases to close or realign, and has forwarded that list to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, Congress, and the Comptroller General for their review. Congress
designed this process to be open and transparent. To that end, section
2903 (c) (4) of that Act provides that,
³In addition to making ALL information used by the Secretary to prepare the recommendations under this subsection available to Congress (including any committee or member of Congress), the Secretary shall also make such information available to the Commission and the Comptroller General of the United States.² (emphasis added)
While the Department has released both the overall report and recommendations, and the service-specific analysis and recommendations, it has not released the installation-specific data, which was the basis for the Department¹s analysis. Specifically, it has not released data indicating how military value scores for each installation were derived. In past BRAC rounds, such data has been released.
If the Department continues to delay the release of this data, communities adversely impacted by BRAC, and the BRAC commission, will be unable to assess the Department¹s recommendations in the limited time allotted to them under BRAC law. Communities affected by BRAC should know how their bases were measured so they can either support or challenge the proposals. The first commission hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, June 7th, less than two weeks from now, and the commission must send its recommendations to the President no later than September 8th, 2005.
We urge you to release this data immediately to avoid undermining the BRAC process.
Sincerely,
Kennedy
Bond
Kerry
Talent
Durbin
Obama
Collins
Snowe
Johnson
Lieberman
Dodd
Feingold
Kohl
Biden
Carper
Thune
Reid
Levin
Corzine
Harkin
Grassley
Cornyn