Senator Ayotte: "Please Count Me Out When It Comes To BRAC"

Statement

As U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) works to find reductions in the Pentagon's budget without undermining national security, she expressed skepticism today that spending tens of billions of dollars to initiate a new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round can be justified at this time. During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was testifying, Senator Ayotte pointed to a November 2009 Government Accountability Office letter that revealed the 2005 BRAC process cost significantly more than anticipated.

"I appreciate very much that we need to find savings in defense in a way that does not undermine our national security-no question-but please count me out when it comes to BRAC," said Senator Ayotte, speaking at an Armed Services Committee hearing. "And here's why: I want to echo concerns that Secretary Panetta himself, having gone through this process, raised before the House Committee in October, where, Secretary, you said, 'I went through [the] BRAC [process], [and] I know that all the dollars people looked [at] for, you know, huge savings in BRAC, and yet they didn't take into consideration the clean-up, they didn't take into consideration all the work that had to be done, they didn't take into consideration all of the needs that had to be addressed, and in many cases it wound up costing [a lot] more.'"

She continued: "In fact, the recent GAO report found that it cost us, for the 2005 BRAC round, 67 percent more than we estimated. And in fact, we aren't going to see any savings from the 2005 round until 2018 - 13 or 14 years down the line."

After the hearing, Senator Ayotte added: "I do not believe we can justify spending tens of billions of dollars within the Pentagon budget in the short-term for returns that may take decades to materialize-especially when details regarding defense sequestration, overseas force posture, and the size of our ground forces are far from clear."

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