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| Letter to Secretary Rumsfeld Urges Support for House BRAC Position |
August 16, 2004 |
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| August 16, 2004
The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary
U.S. Department of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301
Dear Mr. Secretary,
The President today said that we are planning to withdraw 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia and redeploy them to the continental United States. I understand that this move would potentially bring roughly 100,000 family members and military support staff back to the United States in addition to the 70,000 troops themselves.
This redeployment will, as you have said, lead to a more deployable and usable set of capabilities for our military. It makes sense to move from a Cold War force based on static defense to a force capable of deploying anywhere in the world at a moments notice. It also makes sense to increase the size of our deployable forces.
Mr. Secretary, I agree with you that we should not use Cold War era criteria for our military. In keeping with your statements, we should not use the current Cold War BRAC criteria for a 21st century military. With an estimated 170,000 troops, support personnel and family members being redeployed to the United States over the next few years, a temporary increase in our end strength of 30,000, and an as yet undetermined permanent increase in end strength to be authorized this year, it does not make sense to go ahead with a BRAC process that was authorized before the current situation was envisaged.
The House version of the Defense Authorization bill for FY 05 includes a two-year BRAC delay and new criteria for BRAC that are more in keeping with creating a more deployable, usable and capable military.
In light of these new developments I would urge you, Mr. Secretary, to support the House provisions of the Defense Authorization Bill for FY 05 in conference.
It is time to take a step back and re-evaluate the upcoming 2005 BRAC before we do irreversible damage to the future basing needs of our expanding military.
Sincerely,
Heather Wilson
Member of Congress |
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