Rumsfeld May Recommend Veto of Defense Bill if Base Closure is Not Included: WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday that he would recommend that President Bush veto the defense authorization bill unless Congress includes a new round of base closings. The GOP-led House and a majority of Republicans in the Senate oppose such a plan. "We believe that it is important when there are this many demands and this many stresses and this high a tempo on our equipment and our people that we not be carrying around something in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 percent excess base structure," Rumsfeld told reporters. The veto threat was included in a letter Rumsfeld sent Thursday to the chairmen and top minority members of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees: House Chairman Bob Stump, R-Ariz., Senate Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich; senior House Democrat, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and senior Senate Republican, Sen. John Warner, R-Va.