Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

Efforts to save California’s 400 redevelopment agencies from being dissolved on Wednesday failed, but the state Senate passed a measure Tuesday allowing the agencies to spend redevelopment funds earmarked for affordable housing projects. The measure would allow local governments to spend about $1.4 billion contained in the redevelopment agencies’ low- and moderate-income housing funds …

A lone voice on Capitol Hill, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) said Tuesday he would support authorizing a new round of base closures as a logical step to curtail defense spending. “We can’t have it both ways. We can’t say, ‘Okay we’re going to fundamentally overhaul the military but not close bases …

While no host to a military facility relishes the prospect of a new round of base closures, a number of defense communities believe they are in good shape as the Pentagon plans to request Congress authorize another BRAC. “China Lake is well prepared to defend itself and well prepared to advocate for the work we do,” China Lake Alliance Executive Director Mick Gleason told the Ridgecrest Daily Independent …

As the Feb. 1 deadline to dissolve California’s 400 redevelopment agencies approaches, local officials are beginning to tally up the bleak consequences. Hundreds of employees will be laid off, ongoing construction projects will be suspended and hundreds of properties may be sold on the market at a loss …

The Pentagon’s intention to ask Congress to hold a BRAC round may be just a maneuver to preempt up to $600 billion in automatic spending cuts slated to go into effect starting in one year, say some analysts and lawmakers. “All that’s going to do is get a lot of the members very upset at them, this kind of political gamesmanship …

Now is the time to reassess the military’s global posture, given rising support from a bipartisan group of lawmakers for such an initiative and the potential to save tens of billions of dollars, according to a commentary in Federal Times. The nation maintains nearly 700 bases outside the United States, writes Raymond DuBois, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies …

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said they oppose holding another round of base closures, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta proposed last week, with most highlighting the need to assess the nation’s overseas basing before launching a new BRAC. The joint statement released by the Senate delegations for Maine and New Hampshire was typical: “The department is in the midst of decisions on our posture overseas, including the possibility of withdrawing forces and closing bases in Europe …

Army installations likely would not be affected dramatically by a future BRAC round, as the previous one resulted in “a fairly significant consolidation within the Army,” Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters Friday. “So for the Army, I believe a follow-on BRAC would be — would not have as much impact on the Army because we’ve pretty much done what we want to. … For the most part, we have established our installations …

The two heavy brigade combat teams slated to be withdrawn from Europe will not be re-stationed in the United States, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said Friday. “They will come out of the force,” he said at a Pentagon news briefing held to discuss the impact of DOD’s new strategic guidance on the Army …

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Friday that he supports DOD’s proposal to ask for another base closure round, given the failure of the last BRAC to eliminate any of the service’s installations, along with the dwindling size of the service’s fleet. “Since 2005 our inventory of aircraft, for example, has declined in the neighborhood of 500 aircraft. And so the presumption is — I think it’s a fair presumption — that there’s yet more excess infrastructure …