Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

The House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee, which is responsible for BRAC policy and other installation-related matters, will mark up its portion of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill on May 23, the full committee announced Thursday. The committee’s other five subcommittees will mark up their sections of the annual policy bill from May 22-23. The full committee will mark up the legislation on June 5. All of the House markups will be open and streamed live on the web …

In addition to citing multiple reasons why it’s not the right time to go ahead with another round of base closures, the leaders of the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee on Wednesday indicated that the Defense Department needs to complete the review of its European footprint now under way before Congress could approve a domestic base-closing exercise. “I think it’s very difficult for this body to even consider undertaking a domestic BRAC round without a full consideration of which bases could be consolidated and/or closed overseas, given that the interest has always [been] to have domestic capacity foremost,” said the subcommittee’s ranking member, Kelly Ayotte …

Defense officials are considering approaches beyond BRAC to reduce the department’s infrastructure costs, John Conger, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told lawmakers Wednesday. “We’re not sitting idle waiting for BRAC; that’s why we kicked off the European round already,” he told the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee …

For anyone who’s followed Congress’ response to the Obama administration’s request to hold a new base closure round in 2015, Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee must have brought on a sense of déjà vu. Like last month’s hearing on the House side, the panel’s chairman and ranking member each voiced their opposition to a new BRAC round during their opening statements. Subcommittee Chair Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) reminded the DOD witnesses that she opposed the administration’s request last year for two rounds and declared that nothing has changed since then …

Funding constraints are causing the Air Force to curtail training for 13 fighter and bomber squadrons through the end of the fiscal year, but belt-tightening may help the Air Force reach one of its long-term goals, paring down its portfolio of bases. “It’s a significant forcing function,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday of one benefit of dealing with spending cuts …

The only way Congress authorizes a new BRAC round in 2015 is if President Obama threatens to veto any defense authorization bill that does not include it, several Capitol Hill staffers have told Foreign Policy magazine’s E-Ring blog. “Unless the White House is willing to put its own political capital on the line for a BRAC round, which they definitely did not do last year, we’ve probably heard the last of a BRAC round in this bill cycle,” a House Armed Services Committee staffer told the publication …

One argument lawmakers have made to counter the administration’s request to hold a new BRAC round is that the Defense Department first should review its overseas infrastructure before scrutinizing its domestic real estate. The Army already is in the midst of an effort to consolidate its European footprint, points out Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment. The service is on pace to reduce its force structure in Europe by more than 45 percent by the end of 2016 …

The Navy is planning to transferring 149 acres at the former Naval Support Activity New Orleans next month to the Algiers Development District, one of two local groups with primary responsibility for leading the Federal City project at the site on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Last October, the board of the Algiers Development District and the New Orleans Federal Alliance, the group that had spearheaded the effort to redevelop the Navy property, reached agreement to form the Joint Development Committee to govern the public-private development …

Legislation to create a statewide task force to prepare Montana for a future BRAC round was struck down last week in the state Senate despite apparent support. The bill, which would have created a military strategic and economic impact task force, passed the House last month. A Senate committee held a hearing on the measure, but Democratic leadership in the legislature ultimately tabled it, reported the Great Falls Tribune …

DOD expects to incur more than $24 million in costs at two installations shuttered during the 2005 round of base closures to unwind renewable energy and privatized utility projects affected by the closures, according to a new Government Accountability Office study. At Fort Monmouth, N.J., the Army paid about $24.3 million to terminate a renewable energy contract involving ground source heat pumps and to install several boilers to replace the heat pumps. The Army also terminated a privatized electrical utility contract at Fort Monroe, Va., but has not yet reached a settlement with the utility over the termination …