Moves Against Package Possible

By: fedweek

Critics of the base closing process “may be encouraged to try to slow or reverse” the process, in particular by citing problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is set to close, the Congressional Research Service has said. “If successful, such efforts might unravel the entire base closure process, which was designed to prevent Members from politicking to save any one particular base from closure. Since 1989, the requirement that Congress and the President deal with each of the four sets of recommended closures as a package, on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis, has highlighted the potential savings of the entire package of closures while preventing supporters of any one base from rounding up support for saving their site from closure on the grounds that, considered in isolation, closing it would save very little. But since the furor over Walter Reed has at least prompted some public calls for reconsidering that particular BRAC decision, critics of other closures may argue that changes in circumstance since 2005 require a re-look at other parts of the BRAC package.” The most likely vehicle for such an attempt would be the DoD authorization bill, which has passed the House but stalled in the Senate, or the DoD appropriations bill, which hasn’t reached a floor vote in either chamber.