Next major step for BRAC

The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Committee has sent its report to President Bush for his approval on Thursday. It has one recommendation removed as per an injunction against moving the fighters from a Connecticut Air National Guard base to Massachusetts. [Article Link]

The article describes Rumsfeld as having reservations about the commission keeping some of the bases he wanted to close. He's debating whether to suggest thatBush pass the resolution or not. That seems more like complaining to me, since he wanted to close all these bases that the commission felt should remain open, and adding some bases that the commission feels should have been on the list to begin with.

Bush has stated that he is going to pass the resolution onto Congress in order to keep the commission's findings non-political. I don't fully understand this logic, but if he wants to pass the resolution, that's fine. The major question, now, is Congress. Many believe that the findings will pass there, but there are a few hurdles. First, several Republicans are somewhat ticked at the situation of closing bases when we need the military the most. And, several Democrats are probably going to vote against what Bush wants "out of principle," since they seem to think that it's more important to raise dissent against Bush and Republicans rather than serve the people.