Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - The Defense Fiscal Year 2005 Authorization Request

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: THE DEFENSE FISCAL YEAR 2005 AUTHORIZATION REQUEST

CHAIRED BY: SENATOR JOHN WARNER (R-VA)

LOCATION: 2118 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

WITNESSES: SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD; GENERAL PETER PACE, U.S. MARINE CORPS, VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF; DOV ZAKHEIM, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE AND COMPTROLLER

BODY:
SEN. CORNYN: Mr. Secretary, the London Financial Times reports February 4, 2004 that U.S. is preparing to cut its troop levels in Europe by up to a third.

And my question is, with the ongoing global defense posture review and the likely decision to bring home troops from overseas bases, whatever that number may be-and perhaps you could comment on that-not to mention the decision to temporarily increase Army end strength levels, how will these be factored in to the BRAC process?

SEC. RUMSFELD: The BRAC process is just getting under way. And, of course, one would hope that the answer to your question would be that the BRAC commission would do it skillfully. But at the moment, we don't have a good, solid number as to the number of forces that would be coming out of Europe, although there certainly will be forces coming out of Europe, and also some out of Asia, as well as elsewhere.

The BRAC process task will be to look at that and see that if the theory is right that there's something like 20 percent base capacity, facility capacity excess at the present time. If that's true, and then one brings forces home from overseas, one would think that the excess capacity here at home would be somewhat less than that, and we would-the BRAC commission would have to take those things into account.

SEN. CORNYN: My next question has to do with the last-the FY '03 creation of the assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense, the purpose of which was to better coordinate and provide policy oversight for DOD homeland defense activities. Could you please explain how you see DOD's role in homeland defense evolving, and how that will be factored into the BRAC process as well?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, I don't know that it will have a relationship to the BRAC process. The forces we have, of course, around the world are available for homeland defense-the ones that are here are closest; the ones that are elsewhere are available. And the principal responsibility for homeland defense, as we know, is the first responders, depending on the nature of the problem. But very quickly, the Department of Defense gets engaged. For example, at the Olympics last year in Salt Lake City,we had a lot of forces there; in fact, we had more forces there than we did in Afghanistan at that time. And when there's a difficulty, like at the Senate office building today, we've got a chem-bio unit that's coming up to assist in that.

But the assistant secretary's for homeland defense task is to keep us in the department sensitive to the responsibilities of the department with respect to supporting the first responders here in the United States, and to working closely with the Homeland Security Department, and in the interagency process to see that there is a-the kinds of exercises and testing of systems to see that we're prepared and able to respond and coordinate properly with the people who have the principal responsibility.

SEN. CORNYN: Well, I know, for example, in my state the military bases frequently have memoranda of understanding with local communities so that if there's an emergency of some nature on base, that the fire department, the first responders from off base can augment the resources available on base and vice versa. And that's the thrust of my question.

But to that extent, do you deem that-is that relevant to the process? I mean, is that going to be factored in somehow or another?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, certainly the statute lists a whole series of things that need to be taken into consideration. And I would think that those kinds of considerations would be included.

SEN. CORNYN: Thank you.