Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

A bipartisan coalition of 13 senators is asking the Senate Armed Services Committee to require DOD to report on the impact of proposed force structure adjustments before launching such actions. The request follows the dispute triggered by the far-reaching set of force reductions the Air Force included in its fiscal 2013 budget request affecting more than 60 installations. “We have not been provided clear and objective metrics by which the reductions and restructuring proposed at specific installations have been selected …

The South Dakota Ellsworth Development Authority is moving ahead with two projects to preserve Ellsworth Air Force Base and its tremendous economic impact in the western portion of the state. Since the base narrowly averted closure in the last BRAC round, the authority has been purchasing properties surrounding the installation’s airfield to reduce encroachment, reported the Rapid City Journal. A low-income housing project now under construction will offer a new housing option for some of those residents …

Military construction programs would receive $10.6 billion under the draft fiscal 2013 spending bill approved Tuesday by the Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, a $2.4 billion drop from current year funding. The bill’s recommendation falls $568.9 million below the administration’s budget request, with the shortfall coming out of funds for active component military construction. That account would receive $7.1 billion, a decline of $2.6 billion from FY 2012 …

The Obama administration is objecting to language in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill that would extend liability protections for undiscovered contamination afforded developers of installations closed via BRAC to all installations closed after Oct. 24, 1988. The provision essentially would extend the indemnity now provided by Section 330 of the 1993 defense authorization bill to bases closed outside of the BRAC process …

The White House objected Tuesday to restrictions in the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill precluding the Pentagon from planning for a new base closure round and realigning key missions at three particular Air Force bases. The base closure provision bars the department from proposing, planning for or carrying out an additional BRAC round. The other provisions prohibit the department from shuffling elements of the Air Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom, AFB, Mass. …

When the Defense Health Headquarters — which will bring all DOD military medical health care operations to one campus — opens in July, about 3,000 employees are expected to exacerbate existing traffic congestion in Fairfax County, Va. Because the facility is located in leased space that already existed, however, the site was not required to meet many rules designed to lessen traffic impacts, reports wtop.com …

The Port of Corpus Christi reached a sales agreement this week with Oxy Ingleside Property Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., for 816 acres at the former Naval Station Ingleside and an adjacent parcel for $82.1 million. Closing on the sale is expected to take place in August. The sale covers the entire naval station property — except for a 100-acre campus section — along with 435 acres next door …

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority approved three loans totaling $4.5 million this week to cover engineering and construction costs needed to start renovating the former Fort Monmouth. At the same time, the authority is looking for a broker to attract developers to the 1,200-acre site, reported the Star-Ledger. The authority on Tuesday also approved an agreement to sell land at the post to information management firm CommVault Systems. In March, the authority awarded the firm $8.6 million in incentives to create and retain new jobs at Monmouth. “What we want to do is recreate a community at the base — a community of people living and working at the base, which will bring back tax ratables and jobs to the three communities and the county,” said Caren Franzini, the authority’s CEO.

If it’s up to the House Armed Services Committee, not only will there not be a new base closure round in the immediate future, but the Pentagon will not be permitted to plan for one. The committee could have simply ignored DOD’s request for BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015 — as the Readiness Subcommittee did when it marked up its portion of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill on April 27 — but instead it passed an amendment precluding the department from using FY 2013 appropriations “to propose, plan for or execute an additional BRAC round …

In Columbus, Ga., 55 to 65 percent of hotel guests are traveling on business related to the military, a fact that worries hoteliers that serve travelers visiting or working at Fort Benning. Due to planned reductions in spending, the post expects to train only 96,000 soldiers in the current fiscal year, down from 131,000 soldiers in FY 2011. The bulk of installation-related demand for hotels comes from training, graduation ceremonies and contract jobs, events that likely would shrink as the number of trainees declines, reports Hotel News Now. Fort Benning Army Lodge, an 860-room hotel scheduled to open on post later this year, also may hurt local hotels. Demand for lodging in Columbus fell 13 percent for the first three months of the year, while in other defense communities demand has been flat.