House panel votes for two-year delay of base closings

The House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Thursday approved a two-year delay of the next round of military base closings.

Marking up a part of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill, the panel added language to require the Defense Department to provide Congress with a handful of studies by the end of 2005, delaying any further closing decisions until 18 months after the last study is delivered to lawmakers.

The measure would prolong the base closure process until April 2007 at the earliest. The Pentagon wants to continue the next round, but lawmakers worry about losing facilities in their districts.

The legislation, approved by voice vote, was written by Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and ranking member Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said he would offer an amendment in the full committee markup next week to stop the process.

Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., said the work of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was a necessary exercise. He said the move to delay the process could backfire on lawmakers seeking to shield their bases from the next round of closures because BRAC two years from now would be "far more aggressive than the BRAC we are likely to face in [fiscal 2005]."

The measure would add requirements to the Pentagon's base closure selection criteria. It would require the Pentagon to consider the value of research and development being done at the facilities. The department also would have to consider its surge capacity, quality of life and cost savings of any closings. The Pentagon currently considers the ability of military bases to support forces, missions and personnel.

Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said he had planned to offer an amendment to reimburse families who paid for enhanced armored vests for military service members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Larson withdrew the amendment, choosing instead to work out remaining technical details before offering it in full committee markup. Hefley said the full committee would likely support Larson's measure once his language is refined.

Taylor said he had planned to offer an amendment that he said would level the playing field for military installations in homeports in the BRAC process. The amendment would allow states with homeport facilities to negotiate a fair price for the return of properties turned over to local governments by the Defense Department in the BRAC process. But Taylor said some questions remained as to how CBO would score the cost and said those details would be worked out before possibly offering an amendment in full committee.