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Understanding BRAC
By Don Young, PE, CCM
McDonough Bolyard Peck
Military bases bring in millions of federal dollars into the surrounding communities each year. The Department of Defense (DOD) objective for achieving maximum efficiency in sustaining military installations does not match members of Congress desire to keep jobs and a strong local economy. Districts previously impacted by closure and realignment had challenges raised from their Congressional delegations. Thus, Congress created the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process in 1988 as a politically palatable method for achieving more efficiency with DOD installations across the world.
What is BRAC? It is a process of the US federal government used by the DOD and Congress to close excess military installations and realign the total asset inventory in order to save money on operations and maintenance. DOD used a 2004 report that outlined an estimated 24 percent excess of military installation capacity.
387 installations have been closed in all four BRAC rounds: 1989, 1991, 1993, and 1995. The DOD Public Affairs information chart, (above right), depicts the costs to close installations and projected savings through all four rounds of BRAC.
The BRAC process was developed to achieve the federal government’s goal of closing and realigning military installations for better efficiency, despite the political challenges which always arise when federal facilities face reduction or elimination. DOD defines the term of efficiency as becoming more “joint”, which translates to having the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines live, work, and train together on the same bases. In addition to the BRAC 2005 list, DOD included the military transformation plan for additional realignment from overseas basing as part of the overall Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy (IGPBS) that adjusted the worldwide footprint of military forces.
Joint utilization improves efficiency, reduces overhead, and aligns infrastructure to force structure. While the primary reason for BRAC is to save money and eliminate waste, the objective of the joint services will enhance the overall combined war fighting capabilities.
The Pentagon released its proposed BRAC 2005 list on May 13, 2005. After many public hearings, the nine members of the Defense Base Closure and Realignments Commission submitted their revised list to the President on September 8, 2005. The President approved the list, and informed Congress of his approval on September 15, 2005. Despite the House of Representatives effort to block the approval, the list was approved on October 26, 2005. DOD must finish implementation of the BRAC 2005 list no later than September 15, 2011.
One of the most important opportunities for assistance/support is the secondorder impacts of BRAC to the surrounding offpost communities. For example, in Virginia, the remaining installations will grow on average as much as 5070 percent of their current population. This large percentage of population increase impacts the surrounding communities in the following programs:
- Housing market (residential, apartments, etc.)
- K12 school facilities
- Transportation systems (road gridlock and public transportation)
- Fire/Police/Hospital (first responders)
- Higher Education (local colleges/universities)
- Child Care facilities (more working parents)
In summary, while there may be parochial resistance to change, BRAC is an impetus for transformation into the future. Superb opportunities for development and growth will come available whether the DOD population of a designated BRAC installation increases or decreases. For example, Fort Lee currently has an economic impact of over $860 million to the surrounding communities. The average daily population for Fort Lee is 16,273 (2005 figures). The Fort Lee population will increase to 31,372 in 2011. Based on the impending growth due to BRAC, it is anticipated that the economic impact to the surrounding communities will double by 2011, with a projected impact of $1.7 billion in 2013. This same type of economic impact is predicted for the communities surrounding Fort Belvoir, VA and Fort AP Hill, VA. The opportunities for facilities and infrastructure growth using private investment, publicprivate ventures, and municipality growth are outstanding.
About the Author
Don Young, PE, CCM
Mr. Young enjoyed many years of military service, rising to the rank of Colonel in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He is experienced with facility management, master planning, BRACrelated concepts, and federal engineering. Mr. Young is MBP’s Regional Operations Manager in our Williamsburg, VA office.
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