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Senior Virginia lawmakers said Monday that the Pentagon's base realignment and closure process could result in a brain drain from the Defense Department.

"That is something [BRAC commissioners] need to factor in," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, during a town hall meeting in Arlington, Va. Last month, Defense Department officials proposed closing 33 major facilities nationwide, realigning 29 others, and closing or realigning hundreds of smaller military locations. The Pentagon recommended moving more than 20,000 employees out of leased office space in northern Virginia - including Arlington.

Those recommendations have gone to the nine-member BRAC commission, and that panel will pass its revised recommendations to President Bush by Sept. 8. The president and Congress are required to accept or reject the closures and realignments in their entirety.

During the town hall meeting, Davis asked Defense workers if they were tied to their jobs or to the area.

"How many of you would be willing to move to Fort Sam Houston, Texas?" Davis asked. No one in the standing-room-only audience raised a hand.

"Redstone Arsenal, Alabama?" he asked. Again, no response.

When the congressman asked about Fort Meade in nearby Maryland, several workers raised their hands.

One audience member, who said he worked in research and development for the Defense Department, told the lawmakers he would leave the civil service before relocating.

"I'll flip burgers in Arlington before I go to Bethesda [Maryland]," he said.

Davis acknowledged, however, that the highly trained Defense workforce in Arlington would most likely not end up in the food service industry. He told the audience that there were already significant temptations to leave the public service for a defense contractor.

"There are a lot of opportunities to make more money, especially if you have a security clearance," Davis said, suggesting that the Pentagon should be aware of the potential pitfalls of the BRAC process.

Davis and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., lauded the balance and mutual support between the Defense Department and the local community. Both lawmakers appealed to constituents to contact them and voice their opinions on the BRAC process.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., also attended the town hall meeting but was less strident in his defense of northern Virginia facilities. He acknowledged that Virginia as a whole had fared well in the BRAC recommendations, although some communities stand to be hit hard.

Warner told the crowd that he would fight to ensure that "politics play no role" in the BRAC process.

COMMENTS

• Dear Govt employee. I commented as a matter of equity and fairness on major decisions which would impact all DoD employees affected by BRAC. Yes--we need to be sensitive to and are sensitive. If the BRAC process is to be fair and objective, a class of government employees must not be created that are immune to BRAC simply because of where they reside. If the decison to realignment makes sense to save money in the long term, and is approved--so be it. I regret that you missed my point as I detected that you preferred to lean toward ad hominem assualt rather than hear what I thought was an objective viewpoint Federal Manager Posted June 29, 2005 1:58 PM
• Hey Federal Manager, Those two words never should appear together. Kind of like military intelligence. If moving people is not a concern, why are government units concerned about plant closures in the private sector? Of course moving people is a concern. This attitude simply reflects the total lack of concern about employees in the government! If government unions could strike you would see some real changes in government terms of employment but even Congress is more concerned about private sector plant closings than they are about base closures and the impact on the employees. I would say your attitude is truely reflective of "Federal Managers". govt employee Posted June 28, 2005 7:04 AM
• Interesting nuance that now the criteria is that we shouldn't move people under BRAC (should that be the outcome) simply because of where they live or because they don't want to move. Not very fair to the others who will be impacted and families disrupted by BRAC. Agree with comments that brain drain isn't already there. Let those who can retire do so and help the economy. What will need to closely watch is whether agencies, e.g, DoD don't "create" positions which weren't needed to keep the impacted there. This reminds me of the smoke and mirrors created by that con artist Dr. Hamre when he touted cutting two thousand OSD jobs when what he really did was direct the other services to pick up the 2K without additional dollars to their program Federal Manager Posted June 27, 2005 4:15 PM