SENSE OF SENATE REGARDING UTILIZATION OF SAVINGS DERIVED FROM BASE CLOSURE PROCESS.

SEC. 2825. SENSE OF SENATE REGARDING UTILIZATION OF SAVINGS DERIVED FROM BASE CLOSURE PROCESS. (a) Findings.—The Senate makes the following findings: (1) Since 1988, the Department of Defense has conducted four rounds of closures and realignments of military installations in the United States, resulting in the closure of 97 installations. (2) The cost of carrying out the closure or realignment of installations covered by such rounds is estimated by the Secretary of Defense to be $23,000,000,000. (3) The savings expected as a result of the closure or realignment of such installations are estimated by the Secretary to be $10,300,000,000 through fiscal year 1996 and $36,600,000,000 through 2001. (4) In addition to such savings, the Secretary has estimated recurring savings as a result of the closure or realignment of such installations of approximately $5,600,000,000 annually. (5) The fiscal year 1997 budget request for the Department assumed a savings of between $2,000,000,000 and $3,000,000,000 as a result of the closure or realignment of such installations, which savings were to be dedicated to the 111 STAT. 2001modernization of the Armed Forces. The savings assumed in the budget request were not realized. (6) The fiscal year 1998 budget request for the Department assumes a savings of $5,000,000,000 as a result of the closure or realignment of such installations, which savings are to be dedicated to the modernization of the Armed Forces. (b) Sense of Senate on Use of Savings Resulting From Base Closure Process.—It is the sense of the Senate that the savings identified in the report under section 2824 should be made available to the Department of Defense solely for purposes of the modernization of new weapon systems (including research, development, test, and evaluation relating to such modernization) and should be used by the Department solely for such purposes.