U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) called today’s meeting between two federal agencies and members of the New Jersey Congressional delegation a “positive step” toward ensuring a thorough and exhaustive investigation into the plan to close Fort Monmouth. 

    “Closing Fort Monmouth will without a doubt have an enormous negative impact for the region, but it will also have disastrous consequences for the Global War on Terror. Questions continue to arise—almost on a daily basis—as to how the Department of Defense came to their terribly misguided conclusion that Fort Monmouth should be closed. These questions beg for answers that will only come through a thorough and exhaustive investigation,” Smith said.

    Smith and other members of New Jersey’s Congressional delegation met with representatives from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) and the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General’s Office to discuss their expectations and timeline for the investigation which Smith and other members of the delegation recently requested after recent reports confirm that the costs for closing Fort Monmouth have more than doubled in just a two-year period—from a projected $780 million to $1.5 billion.

    Smith said that we should know in a matter of weeks how the agencies will coordinate the investigation and what the scope of it will be, but felt today’s meeting was productive in terms of telling the agencies what the delegation expects the agencies to consider during the investigation.

    “I believe the ‘brain drain’ issue—the Army’s loss of extremely experienced and competent scientists and engineers unwilling to relocate to Maryland—to be a major reason to fix this flawed decision. When the representatives from GAO and the Inspector General’s office arrived at the meeting, that issue was not even on their radar. However, they left with an understanding of just how important that is in terms of the negative impact this decision will have on the Army’s ability to carry out their missions in Global War on Terror,” said Smith.

    Smith added, “Time is not our friend in this instance. The adverse effect the move would have on the Army’s ability to carry out their mission in Global War on Terror—more than anything else—is reason enough to halt the move. It will be very difficult to undue the detrimental effects this move will have on the Army’s mission should the process move to far along before the investigation is complete.”

    U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) as well as U.S. Reps. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jim Saxton (R-NJ) also participated in today’s meeting.

    Smith noted that follow-up meetings are currently being arranged.