Savings in base closings continuing to dwindle

WASHINGTON — The cost of moving the Air Defense Artillery school from Fort Bliss in Texas to Fort Sill has risen from $247 million to $326 million, according to a new government report that says the Pentagon will save far less than first estimated from the 2005 base closure round.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing arm, says the 2005 round of closures will cost far more than expected and won't yield any savings until after 2017. Ultimately, the round will save the Pentagon about $15 billion by 2025, far less than the $36 billion estimated, the office said.

Members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness expressed disappointment Wednesday that the pain to many communities resulting from the largest-ever round of base closures wasn't going to result in the kind of savings the Pentagon and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission had projected.

Lawmakers are reluctant to approve base closure rounds because of the anxiety caused in communities around the country and the potential for huge job losses in some. Opponents of base closures argue that the estimated savings routinely fail to materialize, though previous rounds have resulted in substantial savings, according to the accountability office.

No ‘realistic data'

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, the chairman of the subcommittee, said the base realignment and closure process, often referred to as BRAC, was flawed in 2005.

"It did not obtain realistic data upon which to base sound business decisions and it was again tainted by politics that were supposed to be removed,” Ortiz said. "After reading the GAO's report, I was initially pleased to see that over 20 years, the (Defense) Department expects to save $15 billion. However, I was surprised to find out that this is a 58 percent decrease from what the BRAC commission estimated.”

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., acknowledged that closing and realigning bases is supposed to be about more than money — that it's primarily supposed to allow the Defense Department to consolidate its operations in a way that stresses military value.

But Forbes said the law passed by Congress allowing the 2005 round required the secretary of defense to certify that the recommendations made by the Pentagon would save money in each military department in six years.

"In fact, the secretary of defense did certify that the departments of the Army, the Navy and Air Force would each go into the black by 2011, not 2017, a full six years later, as reported today by the GAO,” the Republican said.

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