Crunch Time for BRAC

The Defense Department has a huge challenge ahead of it as it enters the stretch run for implementing the provisions of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round, the Government Accountability Office reports.

"As opposed to simply closing bases, many of the BRAC 2005 recommendations involve complex realignments, such as designating where military forces returning to the United States from overseas bases would be located; establishing joint military medical centers; creating joint bases; and reconfiguring the defense supply, storage and distribution network," GAO says.

Under the BRAC law, Defense must complete the realignments approved under the 2005 round by Sept. 15, 2011. Almost half of the 800 Defense locations that are implementing BRAC recommendations aren't scheduled to finish their actions until sometime next year, and 230 have scheduled their completion dates within the last two weeks before the September deadline.

This, GAO notes, leaves "little or no margin for slippage to finish constructing buildings and to move or hire the needed personnel." That's potentially a huge issue when you're moving 123,000 personnel and spending $25 billion on new construction and renovation of facilities.

GAO says Defense is working to address BRAC implementation challenges, adding costs to the process. But the report concludes the Pentagon is "not reporting all of these additional costs."

In the August issue of Government Executive, we'll take an in-depth look at how the BRAC process has changed the face of Huntsville, Ala., turning it into a burgeoning hub not only for Defense operations, but those of other security-related federal agencies and contractors, too.