In light of recent reports describing questionable expenditures on overseas military bases, the Pentagon needs to curtail spending on those facilities before reviewing its domestic infrastructure, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) said in explaining the amendment he sponsored to prohibit new BRAC rounds during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s consideration last week of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill.

“It is essential that we ensure our nation’s spending on military bases is prioritized appropriately,” Cruz said in a written statement.

“We need to decrease our overseas footprint. … We should scrutinize [overseas] spending before considering any actions that will impact our domestic installations, many of which have undergone significant updates and improvements in recent years. This is important not only to the hundreds of thousands of troops serving on Texas bases, but also to service men and women across the nation,” he said.

The amendment, co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), would bar future base closure rounds from going ahead until DOD completes an updated review of its overseas bases. The provision passed by voice vote with bipartisan support. The committee approved the defense policy bill Thursday.

Texas is home to 14 major military bases and dozens more National Guard and Reserve bases.

According to a report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, taxpayers spend $10 billion per year on overseas military bases. DOD spending to support a permanent military presence in Germany, South Korea and Japan is subject to little oversight and rising faster than anticipated, the panel found.