President Trump’s defense budget unveiled Tuesday will push for a new round of military base closures across the country, a priority that has eluded the Pentagon under the prior administration.
John Roth, the acting Defense Department comptroller, said the department has seen signals from Congress that it might be more willing now to allow the shuttering of unused military facilities under the base realignment and closure process.
The closing of facilities is politically frought, however, because many lawmakers are unwilling to shutter military bases and other facilities that support jobs and business in their districts. Congress has shunned past requests by DoD despite claims that it could save significant amounts of money.
“It is a very structured, systematic, rigorous process that ultimately Congress has the final say on,” Roth said. “We are asking for the authority for BRAC. We think we are getting some signals from at least a couple of [congressional] committees that are more amenable to it, so we will be pushing that pretty hard.”
The department wants authority from Congress to begin analysis of potential closures that would begin in 2021. Roth said it has an estimated 20 percent excess capacity and could save $2 billion per year by closing those unneeded facilities.
The last BRAC round occurred in 2005, and that and earlier rounds have saved the department about $12 billion per year, according to Roth. But the process often requires significant costs up front and can take years to realize savings.
“All we’re asking for at this stage is the authority,” Roth said. “We can’t even do the detailed analysis under current law.”
