Multi-Step Process Ahead

The Pentagon’s proposal will go to a specially created commission, which will examine the proposal over the course of the summer. GAO also will produce its own separate assessment, with the commission’s recommended package going by September 8 to President Bush, who must approve or disapprove of the package. If he approves, the recommendations become final unless overridden by Congress within 45 legislative days. If Bush disapproves the commission’s recommendation, the commission would have to submit revised recommendations by October 20 and Bush then would have to either approve the revised list or let the process die. The actual closings and realignments would be a multi-year process. Meanwhile, some in Congress may try to put language in the fiscal 2006 DoD authorization bill—the first version of which will be written in the upcoming weeks—to slow, revise or stop the process. The White House in the past has threatened to veto any such measures. Also, some base closings opponents have their eye on what they consider to be a potential legal bar to a closings package, a provision of law requiring a state governor’s approval to close National Guard facilities.