Communities hire consultants to battle base closings

With the Defense Department planning to close or consolidate roughly 25 percent of the nation's military infrastructure in 2005, independent consultants representing military bases around the country will be hard at work this year, lobbying Washington lawmakers and state and local officials in an unprecedented effort to insulate military facilities from the Pentagon's ax.

The Defense Department expects its upcoming next round of base closings -- known as Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC -- to generate $7 billion in annual savings, freeing up resources currently spent on excess capacity to fund weapons modernization and enhance military readiness. Three previous BRAC rounds have prepared local communities for the prospect of losing an installation and prompted intensified interest from lawmakers with bases in their home states. But earlier BRAC rounds have clearly defined the process, allowing lobbyists and other interest groups to learn from past efforts in anticipation of the next round.

Last week marked the Pentagon's deadline for public comment on the criteria planners will use next year to determine the fate of the nation's 425 military installations. Numerous firms lobbied key lawmakers, several of whom contacted the Pentagon with comments in an effort to minimize the potential for base closures back home.

Big states such as Florida, Texas and California have spent millions on lobbying Washington in order to protect their bases, and such efforts appear to be paying off. Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who chairs the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, was one of the first lawmakers to respond with recommendations that favor Texas installations. Other key appropriators followed suit, including Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine and New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who urged the Pentagon to giver broader consideration to certain base criteria, such as the value of research and laboratory assets boasted by installations in their states.

Base criteria aside, lobbyists have found a slew of other opportunities to influence the 2005 BRAC process to boost local interests. Even in smaller states with only one or two bases that need shielding, private consultants are having an impact. Curt Smith, director of public policy at Sommer, Barnard Ackerson in Indianapolis, says his firm has been working for the Southern Indiana Business Alliance in an effort to shield the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, the area's largest facility. The firm's work has helped initiate the prospect of a new interstate near the base that could make material transport less costly to the Pentagon.

Rick McAuliffe, a consultant with the Mayforth Group in Rhode Island, represents the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, an organization working to enhance the state's military installations, including the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Naval Warfare College in Newport. McAuliffe says the state is waging the BRAC battle on several fronts and dividing its time between Washington and the state house in hopes of leveling the playing field for Newport facilities.

McAuliffe has worked with the chamber for several years, garnering an initial $215,000 from the state three years ago in preparation for BRAC 2005.

This year the pot grew to $750,000, a significant amount relative to the size of Rhode Island's annual budget and indicative of the state's increasingly aggressive approach to BRAC. Mayforth also worked with the state's public utilities commission to reduce costs associated with local bases by $1.25 million annually.

Although the firm lobbies in Washington, the bulk of Mayforth's work involves gathering information here and sharing it with state legislators back home.

Explaining the meaning of words routinely thrown around by Pentagon bureaucrats in Washington -- such as "jointness" and "transformation" -- is a critical part of McAuliffe's job. ("Jointness," for the uninitiated, refers to doing more with less by accommodating more than one service on a single base.)

Gary Bushell, a military consultant and a member of the South Texas Military Facilities Task Force, says lobbyists are increasingly trying to factor a base's military mission into their overall efforts.

"We've looked at where the Defense Department is going and how it is using BRAC to implement transformation, and we know that they want to see a more joint world," Bushell said. "We're looking at opportunities that bases present to play in the joint arena, and we inventory assets and see what might work for multi-mission or multi-service use of an existing facility."

But Bushell admitted that lobbying and public relations efforts aren't always effective. In the end, he said, the 2005 BRAC commission will do what it needs to, turning a blind eye to the desperate pleas of economic hardship that so many communities fear.

"I had a commissioner from the last BRAC round tell me once that it was such a heart-wrenching thing that you just get numb to it," Bushell said.

Smith agreed. "Local support matters significantly, but it's got to be more than just cheerleading or writing letters," he said. "It needs to show a move toward more jointness, cost reductions, things that are a reflection of respect for the economic role these activities play in the life of a community."