Rogers Praises Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex
Maxwell Air Force Base will survive the next around of any Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommendations, according to Rep. Mike Rogers.
First of all, the next BRAC is probably 2019 or 2020 because “we’re too broke to close anything,” he said at the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Issues at RSA Activity Center. He said that it costs money to close a base and savings are not realized for 20 to 30 years.
“Maxwell is already secure because of their unique mission,” Rogers said about the base, which contains Air University – the intellectual and leadership center of the Air Force. He said that Air University’s new College of Cyber Air Power is another factor that makes Maxwell an “integral part of any Air Force that we’re going to have in the future. The threats that we are dealing with on a national security standpoint are greater in no areas than in cybersecurity. To know that Maxwell is on the cutting edge of that as a partner is outstanding.”
Rogers, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the subcommittee on Strategic Forces that deals with missile defense and nuclear weapons, praised Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex as a “first-class installation.” He called Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, commander and president of Air University, a “first-class individual.”
Rogers, R-Saks, predicted a major clash over defense spending this year between the Republican-controlled Congress and President Obama. He warned that Obama’s proposed funding levels “would mean we would have to reduce the size of our active duty, Guard and Reserves. We can’t go any further than what we have already gone down to. We’ve had to delay any further procurement of equipment, jets, submarines and other things that we have to have.”
He pointed out that defense spending had shrunk $120 billion from 2010 or 2011. “We have seen over the last seven years a steady decline of defense spending,” said Rogers, who was first elected to the House in 2002 and serves the Third Congressional District.
“This administration has chosen to shift more resources to domestic programs and away from national security,” Rogers said. He said the military has been “virtually hollowed out over the last seven years” because of reduced funding coupled with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq “that have just dragged on forever and (are) incredibly expensive – worn out our manpower and our equipment. We are going to have to change the trend.”
He also sits on the House Agriculture Committee, which is important to Alabama that derives 42 percent of its economy from agriculture.
Rogers also talked about privatizing airport security to reduce long lines that disrupted passengers’ travel plans. The Transportation Security Administration head of security operations was fired in May. There could be private security personnel supervised by TSA next year, Rogers said. He expressed support for the use of explosive-sniffing dogs and said there will be new technology used in screening.
