White House threatens veto of defense bill over limits on base closures

The White House is threatening to veto the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill if it includes language restricting the Defense Department's ability to conduct another round of the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process.

"If the president is presented a bill to repeal or delay BRAC, the Defense secretary, joining with other senior advisers, would recommend that the president veto the bill," said the Office of Budget and Management in a statement Thursday.

The BRAC provision is the only one in the entire Defense authorization bill that has drawn the threat of a veto.

The House passed its version of the authorization bill (H.R. 1588) Thursday, including a provision that would delay, if not repeal, plans for future military base closures. The bill would require the Defense Department to maintain enough bases to be able to handle a surge in military forces in the event of a future crisis. The bill recommends Defense operate enough bases to handle as many as 1.6 million active-duty personnel and 900,000 reservists, levels that the military has not seen since 1991.

The bill also requires that the Pentagon designate at least half of all military installations as essential to national security and bar them from closure.

Two years ago, Congress passed a law allowing more bases to be closed based on the recommendations of an independent BRAC panel beginning in 2005.

House lawmakers say that since that time, the national security environment has changed. "In order to maintain national security and remain capable of supporting future mobilizations, the military must possess the facilities, land and air space necessary to support its forces," states a House Armed Services Committee press release summarizing the bill.

The White House said "the exclusion of an arbitrary number of installations from closure or realignment would undermine a comprehensive review of the department's infrastructure."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has repeatedly said that the military has 25 percent more infrastructure than it needs and that closing more bases would free up billions of dollars for the administration's efforts to transform Defense operations.