[CPEO-MEF] CLOSURE: "Pentagon Official Says DOD Needs More BRAC"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Pentagon Official Says DOD Needs More BRAC

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service
November 22, 2013

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2013 - The Defense Department is again asking  
Congress to allow it to use a tool that would help alleviate  
draconian budget cuts possible under sequestration: the base  
realignment and closure process.
The latest call came from Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of  
defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. In a commentary  
printed in Roll Call today, Kendall said the logic for another  
closure round is irrefutable.

The department simply cannot afford to keep excess infrastructure on  
the books, he said.

"For example, the Army has announced plans to reduce its force from  
562,000 to 490,000 soldiers and more reductions could be forced by  
looming budget cuts, but without BRAC the Army will not be allowed to  
close any bases to reduce overhead," Kendall wrote. "This 'empty  
space' tax on our warfighters will simply result in cuts to  
capabilities elsewhere in the budget."

And those cuts, more often than not, would occur in operations and  
maintenance and modernization accounts. Operations and maintenance  
cuts cripple near-term readiness, modernization cuts affect long-term  
readiness.

In 2004, the department estimated it had about 25 percent excess  
infrastructure. The 2005 base realignment and closure process cut  
roughly 53 percent of that. Since then the military has grown smaller  
so the percentage of excess infrastructure has probably crept up.

...

For the entire release, see
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=121221

For the Roll Call column, see
http://www.rollcall.com/news/ 
a_tale_of_two_bracs_commentary-229248-1.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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