Constituent Connections and Pentagon Cuts

Posted on 05/20/2011 @ 06:30 PM

Tags: budget, checkbook

Yesterday, Senator Tester (MO) posted an Op-Ed in the Huffington Post about cutting the Pentagon budget, another voice in the growing chorus of experts and elected officials agreeing that military spending needs to be "on the table" in the debt and deficit discussions.

The Op-Ed is specifically in reference to overseas bases. We have a lot of them. World War II-era bases still exist all over Europe and Asia, including 268 in Germany and 124 in Japan. We have approximately 370,000 U.S. servicemen and women overseas, with 142,000 based in Europe and Asia. Others are scattered throughout the world in countries like Bulgaria, Peru, Paraguay, Australia, and Ethiopia, costing billions of dollars annually. "The days of America needing hundreds of military installations in dozens of countries across the entire world are over," Tester says. We agree.

This Op-Ed isn't only a success for FCNL's budget priorities. A constituent put us in touch with a legislative assistant in Senator Tester's office and I went with Ruth Flower, Legislative Director and my supervisor, to offer some materials that we had collected on overseas bases. We met in the hall, and after five minutes, we shook hands and the exchange was over. For me, it was fascinating to see how connections between constituents, organizations like FCNL, and Congress work. Meeting the aide was a quick last-minute event, and the Op-Ed was unexpected. Both feel completely outside my to-do list and regular repertoire of on-going projects, but it's actually the most rewarding proof I've seen so far of how progress is made in our line of work. We thank Senator Tester for his leadership on this issue, and urge his colleagues consider whether we really need 1,000 bases overseas.