US Defense Secretary Proposes Closing More Military BasesUS Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld Thursday proposed to close more domestic military bases."With a round of base closings and adjustments that reduced unneeded facilities, we could focus the funds on facilities we actually need," Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee. Rumsfeld, who appeared to defend the revised 2002 Pentagon budget which calls for an extra 18.4 billion dollars, said that closing more bases would enable the Pentagon to get more money it needed to transform the military. The defense secretary has proposed to cut the Air Force bomber fleet, retire all 50 Peacekeeper long-range nuclear missiles and close an unspecified number of bases in 2003. Rumsfeld told the committee that an extra 18.4 billion dollars have to be increased to "just to keep the department going next year on a straight line with no improvements." It would be the biggest defense increase for any year since the mid-1980s. The defense budget as proposed would total 328.9 billion, comparing to the 310.5 billion dollars Bush proposed in February and 296 billion dollars in the current Defense Department budget. |
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