U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are continuing their fight to keep a commissary in the Brunswick-Topsham area to serve more than 10,000 active-duty, Guardsmen, reservists, retirees, and their dependents.
Today, the Senators jointly released a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which they first requested in September 2010, that reveals that the criteria used by the Department of Defense (DOD) to determine when commissaries are closed “are not clear,” and that DOD should clarify its guidance. They also released a letter which they sent to Dr. Clifford L. Stanley, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, reiterating their arguments in support of retention of a commissary in the region, and urging him not to close any commissary stores until DOD has completed a revision of its guidance documents. A copy of the GAO report and the letter are attached.
“It is troubling to us that the Department has relied upon undefined terms [for general and economic criteria] in previous assessments to justify the closure of the Topsham commissary, particularly when evidence indicates that it performs better than many other commissaries,” wrote the Senators. The letter urges Dr. Stanley to initiate a revision of DOD Instruction 1330.17, which guides operations of commissaries, and requests that, “no store that remains open as of the date of this letter – to include the Topsham commissary – should be considered for closure until a revision to the instruction has been completed.”
“With more than 10,000 eligible beneficiaries in the immediate region, DOD should not even be considering eliminating access to a commissary in the Brunswick-Topsham area. It is simply unacceptable for the Department to be making what amount to arbitrary decisions to close such an important benefit to our service members and veterans,” said Senator Snowe.
“A significant number of retired and active duty personnel will remain in the Midcoast region even after the closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. Our veterans deserve our deepest gratitude for their service and sacrifice to our nation. Given the tremendous sacrifices our veterans have made, we believe that they should retain all the benefits that they are entitled to and have earned, including access to the Topsham commissary,” Senator Collins said.
BACKGROUND: The commissary at Topsham was originally scheduled to close in March of this year. But, with Senators Snowe and Collins’ support, the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, which became law on January 7, 2011, included language that requires the Secretary of Defense to review the GAO report, released today by the Senators, before making a decision on the future of the stores. DOD currently plans to keep the stores open until at least September 15, 2011.
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