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Focuses on lessons learned from four rounds of base realignments and closures (BRACs) held in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995. Addresses the applicability of these lessons to future BRACs as related to savings, costs, and economic impact; legislative actions needed to authorize future BRAC rounds; and what improvements would be needed in the Department of Defense's process for identifying bases for realignment and closure. Charts and tables.
While expected environmental cleanup costs for unneeded property arising from the 2005 BRAC round are not yet fully known, Department of Defense (DOD) data indicate that about $950 million will be needed to clean up these bases, adding to the estimated $13.2 billion total cleanup cost for the prior rounds. Although DOD's cleanup program has matured compared to prior BRAC rounds, there are still many unknowns and the cleanup estimate for the 2005 round should be considered preliminary. In fact, environmental cleanup costs are likely to increase as more intensive environmental investigations are undertaken, additional hazardous conditions are discovered, and future reuse plans are finalized. Furthermore, Congress does not have full visibility over the total cost of DOD's BRAC cleanup efforts because none of the four reports DOD prepares on various aspects of environmental cleanup present all types of costs past and future to complete cleanup at each base. Compiling a complete picture of all costs requires extracting information from multiple reports, as GAO has done to estimate the total cleanup cost for the four prior BRAC rounds. More complete and transparent cost information would assist Congress in conducting its oversight responsibilities for this multibillion dollar effort.
As the Dept. of Defense (DoD) prepares for the 2005 base realignment & closure (BRAC) round, questions continue to be raised about the transfer & environmental cleanup of unneeded property arising from the prior 4 BRAC rounds & their impact on cost & savings & on local economies. This report describes DoD's progress in implementing prior BRAC post-closure actions. It addresses: (1) the transfer of unneeded base property to other users, (2) the magnitude of the net savings accruing from the prior rounds, (3) estimated costs for environmental cleanup of BRAC property, & (4) the economic recovery of communities affected by base closures. Charts & tables.
Through base realignment and closure rounds in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995, the Department of Defense expected to significantly reduce its domestic infrastructure and provide needed dollars for high-priority programs such as modernization. With the conclusion of the 6-year implementation period of the last round in fiscal year 2001, the department has closed or realigned hundreds of bases, has generated savings from these actions, and is in the process of transferring unneeded base property to other users. At the same time, the communities surrounding the former defense bases continue the lengthy process of recovery from the economic impact of the closure process. Our last comprehensive report on the implementation of base closure decisions was issued in December 1998. In that report, we concluded that the closure process was generating substantial savings (although the savings estimates were imprecise), most former base property had not yet been transferred to other users, and most communities surrounding closed bases were faring well economically in relation to key national economic indicators. In a July 2001 report and August 2001 testimony, we updated our closure implementation data and reaffirmed the primary results of our prior work.