The Office of Management and Budget is imposing a “Freeze the Footprint” policy on federal agencies designed to restrict the growth in their office and warehouse space. To avoid a net increase in their real property assets, compared to a fiscal 2012 baseline, agencies will be encouraged to pursue more co-locations and consolidations while selling off unneeded properties …
Defense officials are conducting a comprehensive assessment of DOD’s European infrastructure with the goal of consolidating the military footprint to trim expenses. Options developed through the “BRAC-like” process, which then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta initiated in January, are scheduled to be completed for consideration by Panetta’s successor, Chuck Hagel, before the end of the calendar year …
A Montana lawmaker is proposing the state establish a task force to protect and expand military missions in the state. The sponsor of House Bill 579 is State Rep. Roger Hagan, who represents Great Falls, the home of Malmstrom Air Force Base. Other states already have created task forces, and Montana’s lack of one could hurt the state in the event of a BRAC round, according to the bill. The House State Administration Committee has not yet voted on the legislation, reported the Billings Gazette.
Because the White House has not yet delivered its fiscal 2014 budget request, the Pentagon witnesses at Thursday’s hearing of the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee were able to argue the merits of holding additional base closure rounds, but they were unable to say whether the administration would be requesting one more rounds as part of the new budget proposal. “We will be treating the administration’s position on future BRAC rounds as pre-decisional,” John Conger, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, said at the outset of his prepared remarks …
It came as no surprise during Thursday’s hearing of the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee that Republicans and Democrats both were adamantly opposed to a looming request from the Pentagon to hold one or more new BRAC rounds. Possibly the only reason to think the mood in Congress had changed since lawmakers last year rejected the administration’s request for two rounds is the arrival of sequestration. The administration’s primary argument to revisit the issue is that a scaling back of force structure …
If Congress is going to authorize one or more base closure rounds in this year’s defense authorization bill, a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday made clear that it won’t come as a result of support from the House subcommittee responsible for launching a new BRAC. Reiterating many of the same arguments used last year to rebuff the administration’s request for two new rounds, both Republican and Democratic members of the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee openly criticized the Pentagon’s arguments to hold a BRAC round …
Looming base closures rounds in the coming years offer Dayton and the surrounding region the possibility of tremendous gains at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, along with potential risks for the local economy, officials from the Dayton Development Coalition said at a forum on Wednesday. Based on past BRAC rounds, the Springfield Air National Guard base, the Air Force Institute of Technology, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Business and Enterprise Directorate, and Air Force Material Command logistics and operations staff could be at risk for reductions or closure …
This week’s hearing by the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee on the justification for a new base closure round is needed to explore “the pros and cons of a BRAC round in this budgetary and strategic environment,” according to Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), the panel’s new chairman. In a written statement Wittman’s office provided 360, the congressman does not say whether he would support or oppose the Pentagon’s anticipated request for new base closure rounds, but said the hearing allows the committee “to get out front” on the question of whether a new BRAC round is necessary …
After more than seven years of negotiations with the Army, the munitions manufacturer at the former Kansas Army Ammunition Plant on Saturday accepted the Army’s terms for purchasing 4,112 acres at the site, allowing it to continue operating the plant and preserving the jobs of 150 employees. The move provides a tremendous boost for Labette County in southeastern Kansas, which had been bracing to lose the company’s operation when negotiations over the sale came to a halt earlier this year. At that point, the Army gave Day & Zimmermann until July 31 to suspend operations and vacate the property …
Aviation businesses at the Griffith Business and Technology Park, the reuse project at the former base in Upstate New York, are concerned about the impact of the FAA’s plan to shut down the airport’s air traffic control tower next month. Airport operations will be able to continue, but officials are anxious that some potential airport customers, including the military, will be deterred by the lack of a tower …