The US has already started pulling out staff from the base on Terceira island, having announced in 2015 that it would be scaling back its presence there.
Speaking after an audience with the speaker of Portugal’s parliament, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, Republican Congressman, Steve Scalise, praised the fact that Portugal “continues to work with the US, through NATO, to combat terrorism in the world”.
Asked about his position on the future of the Lajes base, Scalise said that was up to the new US president, Donald Trump.
“We have to see what the Trump administration defined in terms of long-term policy,” he said.
“But Trump has been very clear that he wants to work with our partners to combat terrorism, so as to protect America, which has obviously been attacked, [something] that has also happened in Europe.”
Scalise is leading a group of nine members of Congress - seven Republicans and two Democrats - on a three-day visit.
In receiving the delegation, Ferro Rodrigues highlighted the Lajes issue, recalling a parliamentary resolution from March 2015 that expressed particular concern about the impact on local employment and infrastructure.
In response, Scalise said that the US vice president, Mike Pence, “in the name of President Trump, asked me to express the president’s strong commitment to our relationship with Portugal and our strong relationship with NATO.”
Officials from the two governments have been in talks for some time about what future the Lajes base might have.