Congress Will Come Around On BRAC, Pentagon Official Says
Defense Communities
February 2, 2015
Congress ultimately will approve DOD’s request to hold a new BRAC round, Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord said Monday, but he acknowledged it could take more time.
During a briefing on Monday on the department’s fiscal 2016 budget proposal — which repeats last year’s request to hold a base closure round in 2017 — McCord recalled the two decades he spent as a staff member for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I spent five years working with Sen. [John] McCain’s staff, at the time to get authority for what turned into the 2005 BRAC round,” he said. “We started back in 1997. So it doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. And in this case, it certainly has not,” McCord said, reported the Hill.
“I think the case is still compelling,” McCord said. It’s been 10 years since the last round was conducted.
“I would believe that anybody running a business, large or small, would say that every 10 to 12 years if you had an organization as large as this one, it’s time to look at your physical footprint and see if it still was relevant to your needs,” he said.
Despite the administration’s insistence that it has significant excess infrastructure, its BRAC requests have failed to gain any traction with Congress each of the past three years.
“The need to reduce unneeded facilities is so critical that, in the absence of authorization of a new round of BRAC, the administration will pursue alternative options to reduce this wasteful spending,” the Office of Management and Budget warned in its analysis of the proposal.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, already has spoken out against a new round of base closures. During a speech last month, he said he would not consider authorizing another BRAC until the military’s future roles and missions are better understood.
During a briefing on Monday on the department’s fiscal 2016 budget proposal — which repeats last year’s request to hold a base closure round in 2017 — McCord recalled the two decades he spent as a staff member for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I spent five years working with Sen. [John] McCain’s staff, at the time to get authority for what turned into the 2005 BRAC round,” he said. “We started back in 1997. So it doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. And in this case, it certainly has not,” McCord said, reported the Hill.
“I think the case is still compelling,” McCord said. It’s been 10 years since the last round was conducted.
“I would believe that anybody running a business, large or small, would say that every 10 to 12 years if you had an organization as large as this one, it’s time to look at your physical footprint and see if it still was relevant to your needs,” he said.
Despite the administration’s insistence that it has significant excess infrastructure, its BRAC requests have failed to gain any traction with Congress each of the past three years.
“The need to reduce unneeded facilities is so critical that, in the absence of authorization of a new round of BRAC, the administration will pursue alternative options to reduce this wasteful spending,” the Office of Management and Budget warned in its analysis of the proposal.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, already has spoken out against a new round of base closures. During a speech last month, he said he would not consider authorizing another BRAC until the military’s future roles and missions are better understood.