WASHINGTON -- Even as he proposed boosting defense spending by $54 billion, President Donald Trump followed the lead of his predecessor in asking for a new round of military base closings.
Such talk in the past worried New Jersey officials who feared that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst would be a target, the way McGuire Air Force Base was more than two decades ago.
But that was before the joint base landed 24 new KC-46 refueling tankers. Scheduled to arrive from 2020 to 2023, the planes will be housed by the 305th Air Mobility Wing.
"The most important thing that a base can have is a mission that's relevant now and in the future," said Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "The KC-46 ensures that."
In his budget for the 12 months beginning Oct. 1, Trump said that about 20 percent of the Pentagon's facilities were not needed, and a new Base Closing and Realignment Commission was the best way to get rid of them. He said the process should begin in 2021, leading to savings of at least $2 billion a year by 2027.
Congress repeatedly rejected President Barack Obama's requests to begin the process of shutting down bases.
The defense policy bill for the current fiscal year prevents another round of base closings, and Congress also has blocked the Pentagon from moving or retiring any of the KC-10 refueling tanker planes currently housed at the base. Those tankers will be replaced by the KC-46s.
Trump, who criticized the defense spending caps agreed to by Obama and congressional Republicans, released an initial spending plan in March without proposing a new round of base closings.
On the contrary, his call for more military spending was considered a boon for the Joint Base.
Reps. Norcross, Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.), Tom MacArthur (R-3rd Dist.) and Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis last week seeking funding for new hangars to house the new aircraft.
"Preparing for new KC-46 refueling tankers with new hangars will ensure no interruption in our vital air mobility mission and will help save lives," said MacArthur, whose district includes the Joint Base.
The Joint Base is the second-largest employer in New Jersey, behind only the state government, and contributes $6.9 billion to the local economy, according to Smith.