Sgt. 1st Class Zachary N. Balancier, front, and and Pvt. Christian E. Risby of the 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, train in Grafenwohr, Germany, in October. The Defense Department is expected to decide early this year whether to keep the Baumholder-based 170th and the Schweinfurt-based 172nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Europe

WASHINGTON – As Washington roils in economic debates over the federal government’s fiscal solvency, a senior Republican senator is continuing his call on the Pentagon to bring more troops home from Europe, and telling the continent to start manning its own posts and footing a greater share of defense costs.

“I think it’s time for us to have a serious heart to heart with the Europeans,” said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Pentagon is under White House marching orders to reduce spending by $400 billion (over 12 years) and even Republicans are proposing as much as a $1 trillion cut (over 10 years).

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned in his parting hours against reducing overseas bases, which conservatives applauded, though not much has been said about rethinking personnel numbers.

Sessions, in Thursday’s confirmation hearing, lamented the Pentagon’s April decision to bring home only one Army brigade in 2015, about 5,000 soldiers, citing a Stars and Stripes report.

“If they don’t need to be there for serious strategic reasons, I think we should look to bring more home and reduce our presence,” Sessions said.

The Defense Department said in 2004 it would return to stateside two of four combat brigades in Europe. DOD had not chosen the brigade that will come home but it was believed to be either Baumholder’s 170th Infantry Brigade or Schweinfurt’s 172nd Infantry Brigade.

Sessions has made similar statements in previous hearings this year, criticizing European defense spending at one and two percent of most countries' gross domestic products, which falls below their NATO obligations.

“Well, I guess you feel OK because the United States will be there to take care you,” he said. “We need to have these kind of conversations with our allies. They’ve got to participate more.”

Actually, in Gates’ final speech to NATO, he said bluntly that the fear of a “two-tiered” alliance had come true: Some countries pony up troops and money for hard combat, others for humanitarian or peacekeeping missions.

“I am the latest in a string of U.S. defense secretaries who have urged allies privately and publicly, often with exasperation, to meet agreed-upon NATO benchmarks for defense spending,” he said. “However, fiscal, political and demographic realities make this unlikely to happen anytime soon … Today, just five of 28 allies – the U.S., U.K., France, Greece, along with Albania – exceed the agreed 2 percent of GDP spending on defense. Regrettably, but realistically, this situation is highly unlikely to change.”

On Thursday, Sessions added that while he felt U.S. defense spending did little to cause the U.S. budget crisis and cutting it likely would do little to solve it, no one is immune from the cuts facing the entire government.

“You’ll have to be part of a belt tightening, there’s just no doubt about it.”