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The Center offers free of charge its "BRAC Updates" e-mail list. The Center sends out updates on important BRAC activities and materials on an "as needed" basis; usually 2-3 times a week. If you are interested, e-mail Christopher Hellman with the message "Subscribe me to BRAC Updates" in the subject line.
BRAC Facts
- Annual savings from the four previous BRAC rounds will be $6.6 billion.
- Additional closures will result in a further annual savings of $3.5 billion.
- 39 percent of all congressional districts have a "significant" military presence.
- 72 percent of all congressional districts have some kind of military presence.
- Only four states have no military presence – Minnesota,
Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia.
-- Briefing by Raymond DuBois, the deputy undersecretary of defense for Installations and Environment, Aug. 2, 2001. - Net savings through Fiscal Year 2003 was $29 billion
-- GAO report "Military Base Closures: Updated Status of Prior Base Realignments and Closures," [GAO-05-138] January 14, 2005
BRAC Introduction
Since the end of the Cold War, the Defense Department has reduced the size of the U.S. military by roughly one-third. And while there have already been four rounds of base closures (in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995), the Pentagon estimates that they have nearly 25 percent surplus capacity in the current U.S. basing infrastructure.
Because of the negative economic impact associated with base closures – in both job losses among civilian employees at military installations and the reductions in tax and commercial revenue that occur when military personnel and their dependents move away from a community – BRAC has always been a very sensitive political issue. For years Congress refused repeated requests by the Defense Department for permission to close additional bases after the last BRAC round in 1995. It wasn’t until 2001 that Congress agreed to allow the Pentagon to close any more bases, and even then, permitted only one additional round of closures in 2005 instead of the two rounds requested by the Defense Department.
In total, the four previous BRAC rounds have resulted in the closure of 97 major military installations (defined as those bases with 300 or more civilian employees), 255 minor bases, and the realignment of 145 installations. According to the Defense Department, these closures have resulted in a recurring annual savings of $6.6 billion. The Pentagon projects that further closures will result in additional recurring annual savings of $3.6 billion.
The Center’s Christopher Hellman is a nationally recognized expert on BRAC, and has been working on the base closure issue since 1987. He has a background as a congressional staffer focusing on protecting existing bases from closure and helping develop re-use plans for closed facilities. He now works as an analyst monitoring all aspects of the BRAC process, including military basing policy, DoD, congressional and community activities, and the national and local politics of base closures. He is co-author of the 2001 report “New Beginnings” which examined the impact of previous BRAC rounds on effected communities.
Chris is a regular media commentator and lecturer on the BRAC issue.
He can be reached at (202) 546-0795, Ext. 197, or chellman@armscontrolcenter.org