Defense Communities 360 Headlines

Pentagon officials are hopeful they are close to striking a deal with the Senate to resume funding construction projects on Guam needed to accommodate the relocation of thousands of Marines from Okinawa. Since the July release of a congressionally mandated assessment of the nation’s realignment plans for the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has reached out to several members of Congress to discuss lawmakers’ outstanding concerns regarding the realignment …

The Air Force is scheduled to hold a ceremony Monday morning in San Antonio to mark the merger of the service’s three civil engineering field operating agencies into a new organization responsible for installation support. The Air Force Civil Engineer Center merges the missions of the Air Force Real Property Agency and the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment with the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency in an effort to streamline operations and reduce manpower amid a climate of constrained funding …

The military services should continue normal spending and operations as if sequestration will not occur starting on Jan. 2, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told DOD managers and office heads last week. Carter’s memo dated Sept. 25 directs managers “to continue the defense mission under current laws and policies, without taking steps that assume sequestration will occur,” reported Bloomberg News. Defense programs and activities shouldn’t suffer the harmful effects of the automatic spending cuts as long as there still is a chance they can be avoided, according to the memo …

A $1.7 billion loan from state-supported China Development Bank to Lennar Corp. to convert two former naval bases in San Francisco, Treasure Island and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, into large-scale housing projects is being held up over concerns about the impact of U.S. tax policies. The bank’s primary concern is the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act, which could require foreign banks to pay a 30 percent withholding tax on interest income earned on loans to U.S. entities …

The New Orleans Federal Alliance and the Algiers Development District so far have been unable to reach an agreement over jointly managing the Federal City project, a public-private development located at the former Naval Support Activity New Orleans. On Monday, the Algiers board agreed to send NOFA a new version of a proposed cooperative endeavor agreement for overseeing the mixed-used development anchored by the 29-acre Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans …

Joint bases are still a relatively new concept for the military and require personnel to adapt to installation support functions that are merged across the entire base, while other aspects of each military service’s culture may still be preserved in many instances. In one sense, joint bases serve as “engines of innovation for the DOD,” allowing planners to find the most efficient ways to provide 46 separate support functions …

The LRA for the former Brunswick Naval Air Station this week approved the sale of a 248-room hotel and 190 housing units for $6 million to the developer that previously purchased 700 units of former base housing. Affordable Midcoast Housing will use the buildings to house Navy personnel assigned to shipbuilder Bath Iron Works. The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority originally had planned to turn the base hotel into a conference center, but a recent analysis concluded that Maine’s Midcoast region could not support a new conference center or hotel …

Becoming increasingly impatient as the imposition of automatic spending reductions draws closer, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Thursday that he would accept any legislation that defers looming defense cuts. “I’ll take whatever the hell deal they can make right now to deal with sequestration,” Panetta said when asked if he would settle for a short-term measure that at least postpones sequestration in an attempt to give lawmakers more time to avert the potential for up to $500 billion in defense cuts through FY 2021 …

The Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp. is “at the 3-yard line,” President and CEO Bruce Steadman told its board of directors this week, according to the Press-Republican newspaper.

The Air Force last week officially transferred to Clinton County, N.Y., the final parcel of the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base…

A new state commission in Pennsylvania is tasked with protecting the state’s military installations from budget cuts and future rounds of BRAC.

“This panel will monitor federal activities that might affect these bases and work to protect our citizens from the needless loss of important jobs,” Gov. Tom Corbett said in a press release when he created the commission by executive order…