Rumsfeld plans trim of 100 military bases John Hendren Los Angeles Times Oct. 14, 2003 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is planning to cut at least 100 of the nation's 425 military bases, more closures than in the four previous rounds of base closures combined, beginning in 2005, Pentagon insiders said Monday. Rumsfeld is expected to submit to the congressional Base Closure and Realignment Commission a plan to shutter as many as one-third of Army bases, one-quarter of Air Force bases and a smaller percentage of Marine Corps and Navy bases, a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity. Such a proposal would guarantee a political firestorm on Capitol Hill. Military analyst Loren Thompson reported Rumsfeld's plans in an analysis prepared late last week for defense officials and reporters. Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., public policy organization, said the savings are expected to exceed the $66 billion the Pentagon saved during the past decade from previous base closures. It would come at the politically controversial cost of shutting about 25 percent of the nation's bases. Under legislation passed in 2002, Rumsfeld is required by May 16, 2005, to prepare a list of bases to be closed or realigned, and the nine-member Base Closure and Realignment Commission is due to submit its list to the White House by Sept. 8, 2005. A vote by a simple majority of the nine is all that is needed to keep any base on the list. If President Bush accepts the list, the closures become law in 45 days unless Congress blocks them. The more activities a base performs - if more than one service is housed there, if it is a command post, or if it is home to Reserve and National Guard units, for instance - the less likely it is to be closed. Insiders estimate that as many as 150 bases could be on the 2005 list. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1014weatherstudy14.html
Good. Why keep bases if they're not needed? (answer: because locals like what they do for the local economy)
