From providing credit opportunities, to catering to specific locations and missions, to providing a significant multi-million dollar input into MWR programs, the exchanges are a vital part of the military community. Exchanges provide items at a modest savings for beneficiaries, while re-investing the profits back into the military system. In that sense, the exchanges are essentially self-supporting and pay for MWR programs that otherwise would go away or have to be paid for with appropriated dollars. Changes in military stores would cause trepidation in the force. We have received many phone calls and letters reflecting uncertainty that our government is sincerely committed to the welfare of our military troops.
Some recent actions seem to focus only on the bottom line, rather than the good of the troops.
Others suggest a desire on the part of DoD, now that the Cold War is won, to disengage from the business of providing the benefits that have been touted as part of the military calling. Some recent public discussion items have been calls for establishing management agencies, merging commissaries, combining exchanges and commissaries, transferring commissary control back to the services, threatening to close some stores, and discussing surcharge increases. The Alliance commends this Congress, and this panel in particular, for actions in the first session of the 105 th Congress to prohibit some threats of this sort. We urge you to stay the course. Privatization would most likely not be beneficial to military stores.