Effort to delay base closures defeated

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives defeated an amendment that would have delayed the Pentagon’s plans for military base closure, as Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley of New Hampshire and Democrat Tom Allen of Maine and members from other potentially affected states pushed to stall any final decisions.

Language sponsored by Bradley and Allen was offered as an amendment to legislation that would authorize fiscal 2006 funding for the Department of Defense. It was defeated Wednesday 112-316.

The amendment would have postponed the base closing process until most American troops return from Iraq and several Pentagon studies, including the Quadrennial Defense Review, are completed.

The home states of Allen and Bradley would be affected by the closing of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. That facility is among the largest on the Pentagon’s recommended list of closures.

In the Senate, Thune and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced legislation Wednesday that would shut down the current round of base closings unless the Pentagon releases data and documentation related to its Base Realignment and Closure recommendations.

“In this country, we simply do not allow our government to make decisions in the dark that profoundly impact so many citizens’ lives,” Snowe said. “We cannot allow the Department of Defense to continue to withhold the data, methodology and assumptions it used to arrive at its BRAC recommendations.”