Defense Communities 360 Headlines

Legislation sponsored by Maine’s two senators would make it easier for tenants located at bases closed in the last BRAC round to qualify for the HUBZone program, a Small Business Administration initiative offering preferential access to federal procurements to businesses in distressed areas. Currently, BRAC installations are designated as HUBZones for five years after they are formally closed. The law, however, defines the geographic boundaries of those HUBZones as the borders of the closed installation, making it extremely difficult for companies to meet one of the program’s criteria — 35 percent of their employees must live within the HUBZone …

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pressed lawmakers to reverse sequestration, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that allowing the automatic defense cuts to go into effect March 1 “would be a shameful, irresponsible act.” Panetta said the department began preparing last month for the looming spending reductions because lawmakers began saying they were willing to let the across-the-board reductions go forward …

With the prospects uncertain at best of averting almost $500 billion in defense spending reductions over the next nine years, lawmakers have begun to discuss providing the Pentagon the flexibility to move funds between accounts as a way to manage the across-the-board cuts. For different reasons, though, it will prove difficult to get both parties to pass legislation allowing DOD to reprogram funds …

The veterans’ unemployment rate climbed to 7.6 percent in January, resulting in an estimated 844,000 veterans without jobs and marking the third straight month the rate has increased. The jobless rate for veterans was 7 percent in December and 6.6 percent in November. Recently separated veterans have faced an even greater challenge in finding jobs …

The District of Columbia last week issued a request for qualifications from prospective firms to be the master developer for 66.6 acres at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Upper Northwest Washington. The city’s reuse plan for the site, which will feature a town center, calls for 1,864 multi-family housing units, 90 townhomes, 767,000 square feet of office space, 212,000 square feet of retail, and 176,000 square feet of other uses such as arts and entertainment …

The Navy’s selection of an alternate landing site for turboprop aircraft based in Norfolk, Va., will save the government millions of dollars and, more importantly, reduce the risk that Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach is closed in a future BRAC round, according to the region’s congressional delegation. The Navy had spent several years looking for an alternate practice facility to relieve congestion at Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, which primarily is used by squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets from nearby Oceana …

The city of Philadelphia on Friday unveiled a new master plan for the former Philadelphia Navy Yard, a move necessitated by the remarkable investment and job growth the base has experienced since most naval activities shut down following the 1995 round of BRAC. Since 2000, when the city acquired 1,000 acres from the Navy, more than $130 million in publicly funded infrastructure improvements has leveraged more than $700 million in private investment …

The top two lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee are discussing alternative spending reductions that would replace at least some of the $85 billion in automatic, government-wide cuts slated to go into effect March 1. At this point, Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) are looking at only alternate spending cuts and skipping talk of possible ways to raise revenue by eliminating tax breaks or increasing taxes on corporations …

The Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce believes it has a strong argument to defend its brigade combat team from elimination as the Army considers how to trim its force structure in response to budget constraints. In a letter to Army Environmental Command, the chamber touted Benning’s numerous assets, including $3.5 billion spent on construction at the post since the last BRAC round to ready it to accommodate the U.S. Armor School and approval of two special purpose local option sales tax initiatives to improve schools and local roads …

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday he plans to move legislation to replace the automatic, government-wide spending reductions with a mix of alternate cuts and new revenue from eliminating tax loopholes for corporations and upper-income Americans. The plan almost certainly will conflict with a measure House Republicans are considering, which likely will rely on changes to entitlement programs to replace the sequester …