Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have signaled they do not plan on authorizing a new BRAC round right away, but lobbyists continue to position defense communities to avoid looming base closures, reports the Washington Post. “My clients aren’t paying me to wait for the closure list to come out,” said Barry Rhoads, president of Cassidy & Associates. Even without a formal BRAC, the military services will try to shave excess capacity in an attempt to cut spending, say experts. “Regardless of whether a BRAC gets passed … DOD has left no doubt in anybody’s mind that follows it that they are going to do things, within the law that they have now, to change the face of installations,” Rhoads said.

Funding for all military construction programs would fall $2.4 billion from the current year to $10.6 billion in fiscal 2013 under the draft spending bill for military construction and veterans affairs released by the House Appropriations Committee Monday. A deliberate pause in milcon proposed by the Air Force would account for $839 million of the reduction. A decline in requirements for BRAC 2005 accounts for a small decrease as well …

The Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco received $7.3 million last week for job training and housing assistance courtesy of Lennar Urban, the developer behind the $1.2 billion makeover of the 700-acre site of the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The check is the first installment of a proposed $37.5 million designated for community benefits …

Because of multiple challenges over the past six years in moving forward with redevelopment of the Broadway Complex, the Navy should consider moving its headquarters facility elsewhere in the San Diego metropolitan area, according to report language accompanying the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill. The Navy reached an agreement with a local developer in 2006 to build it new offices in exchange for a 99-year lease to develop the waterfront property, meeting a deadline imposed by the 2005 BRAC Commission for avoiding closure of the site …

Business and elected leaders in eastern Washington are going all out to save Fairchild AFB from closure in a pending BRAC round, focusing on landing the KC-46A, the next-generation aerial-refueling tanker. Greater Spokane Incorporated, the local economic development agency, recently took a delegation to the Pentagon to discuss the installation’s strengths with Air Force officials, reported the Seattle Times. The main challenge for Spokane is limiting growth outside Fairchild, which is in a fast-growing area 10 miles west of the city …

The state of Florida will have $4.6 million to spend on programs supporting its defense installations in the fiscal year starting July 1, a funding stream which will allow the state to continue its longstanding support for the military. The state budget signed last month by Gov. Rick Scott allocates $2.6 million for Florida’s three primary grant programs, an amount which was exceeded only once since the beginning of fiscal year 2008-2009 …

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray is visiting the state’s six installations, part of an effort to reach out to local business, community and military leaders to start crafting plans to strengthen the bases and help them avoid closure following a future BRAC round. Another goal of the initiative is to form a compact among the communities surrounding each facility to pledge support for the military and highlight the installations’ economic and strategic value, reported Nashoba Publishing. “We’ve started early,” said Murray, who established the Commonwealth’s Military Asset and Security Strategy Task Force in February. On Tuesday, he visited the Fort Devens Range Complex, the half of Fort Devens which remained open after the post closed in 1996.

The Navy’s second attempt to hold a public auction for the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads ended much as the first, with no suitable buyers. The Navy failed to receive any bids in its latest attempt, which opened in February, the Navy BRAC Program Management Office told 360. Officials still are evaluating their options for disposing of 2,036 acres at the site located on the eastern tip of Puerto Rico …

While the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee on Friday rejected the Pentagon’s request for two new BRAC rounds, at the same time it called for GAO to review how defense communities that experienced significant mission growth in the past handled the associated strains on their transportation infrastructure, schools, utilities and housing. “Now that the Department of Defense has completed its fifth BRAC round and the potential exists for future infrastructure, force structure and installation mission changes, local communities may once again have to manage potentially significant installation change …

The House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee approved its section of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill Friday, omitting language allowing the Pentagon’s request to hold base closure rounds in 2013 and 2015. The decision to deny DOD permission for one or more BRAC rounds had been all but assured since the department announced its intention to request them. Subcommittee Chairman Randy Forbes confirmed that outcome at the outset of the markup …