MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
Friday, May 13, 2005
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MATTHEWS: Right now, we're joined by Senator Jon Corzine, Congressman Rush Holt, Senator Frank Lautenberg, and Congressman Frank Pallone, all of New Jersey, who are holding a town hall rally to help save Fort Monmouth.
Let me go to Congressman Rush Holt. First of all, sir, how is this going to affect your constituents, the loss of this base, if you lose it?
REP. RUSH HOLT (D), NEW JERSEY: Well, it's not so much about a local matter. It's a national matter. It's a matter of national security.
And I really think that the base closing commission, when they understand the flawed logic that went into preparing this Pentagon list, they'll throw it out the window. And Fort Monmouth here in central New Jersey will remain productive and active.
I mean, it's flawed from the beginning, that they should be talking about which bases to keep open, which bases to close, where to redistribute people, when they don't yet have an international plan for how to conduct the struggle against terrorism, what research they're going to need, what material they're going to need.
This is no time to be talking about closing bases and moving other places when they don't have a good plan. The Pentagon has not distinguished itself in recent years in planning. So this is a bad time to do it.
But even within that, what they've done, with very narrow criteria, and a very closed process, is exclude any consideration of the present and the future. In the present, right now, in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are men and women whose effectiveness and lives depend on what's coming out of Fort Monmouth.
And for them to gamble, for the Pentagon to say, "Well, we'll move these labs elsewhere. And we probably can find some scientists and engineers there. And we probably can find procurement specialists there. And we'll be able to limp along and get things going again." That's the kind of gamble that we shouldn't take when there's military activity underway right now.
And as for the future, to say that, "Well, we can buy research and development off the shelf. We don't really need to maintain this cadre of experts that exists at Fort Monmouth with decades of experience," it exposes a failure to understand how research and development is done.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you, Congressman Rush Holt.
Let me go right now to Senator Frank Lautenberg. Senator, you've got a lot of history dealing with representing your state of New Jersey. Why do you think that this base, the extremely famous Fort Monmouth was put on this list to close?
SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: Well, besides the fact that I served here, Chris, during World War II, when we were doing research then on how to communicate through radio, telephone, how to improve things, this is a technically based facility.
And when we're looking at a war where people are willing to give their lives to take out our soldiers, and we're trying to figure out ways to save them, and we know we can't do it. We're losing people constantly. Would we dream of cutting back our forces now to save money? Should we think about cutting back on investment so that we don't to have spend so much for body armor or for Humvees? Never. Never.
And this is no time, when people are willing to die to kill us, that we shouldn't have the best in technology to try to prevent these roadside explosives from going off, to detect them early. It's the wrong time.
During the war, who ever dreamt that we would be thinking about ways of cutting back on a critical part of our defense?
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you very much, Senator Frank Lautenberg.
Let's go right now to Congressman Frank Pallone. Let me ask you, Congressman, the military has gotten very stretched here. They've talked about having a difficult time meeting other commitments besides Iraq in the world. Isn't it a necessary evil to save this $37 billion that they saved through these closings?
REP. FRANK PALLONE (D), NEW JERSEY: They're not going to save any money here at Fort Monmouth. First of all, they're talking about moving it to Aberdeen, Maryland. And they're saying it's going to cost over $1 billion to recreate the facilities and the equipment at Aberdeen, Maryland. So it's going to cost more to move Fort Monmouth.
But beyond that, the military value. And the bottom line is, we do the communications in electronics, research and development for the Army in the field. There will be a commander next week that will call from Iraq and ask somebody to develop something that he needs in the next week or two in the field in the Iraq war. Who's going to do that while this move takes place and costs $1 billion over the next five years?
The bottom line is the scientists and the engineers are here now performing these functions. They do a good job helping the soldier in the field. And that help isn't going to be there if this is closed and disrupted, not to mention the billion dollars that the Pentagon is saying it would cost to actually make the move.
This is really a crazy decision. And I'm convinced that the BRAC will not uphold it, and they'll keep Fort Monmouth open, and they'll want that military value to continue for the soldier in Iraq.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you, Congressman Frank Pallone.
Let me go right now to Senator Jon Corzine. Is there anything that can really be done, or are these basically decisions that have been put in concrete by the military? Senator Corzine first.
SEN. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: The GAO's going to do a study on this. I think, when they look at this, they'll help us with the BRAC. The second thing that can be done about it, is if we've made a whole series of bad decisions. And I tell you, the one that we see here at Fort Monmouth is bad for the national security of this country.
If we have got a series of those, then I think the Congress can stand up and say this whole BRAC idea is a bad idea and turn the whole thing over in the fall. So I think there are two ways that Fort Monmouth can be impacted. I think we have serious questions about the viability of the whole BRAC process.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you very much, Senator Corzine, Congressman Rush Holt, Senator Frank Lautenberg and Congressman Frank Pallone.
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