State Department Plan for Training Center Draws Senatorial Flak

A White House-approved State Department plan to build a new diplomatic security training center in central Virginia has run into a budgetary buzz saw, one wielded by lawmakers who see it as too expensive compared with a competing proposal to use existing Homeland Security Department facilities.

During a Tuesday hearing that produced several references to the deaths of four U.S. government employees by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, senators of both parties criticized State’s plan to build a $413 million operations training complex at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Va.,  by 2019, rather than using the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga.

“We would like to learn why this half-billion-dollar project was greenlighted even though a more cost-effective alternative was available,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Similar objections to the plan to consolidate eleven centers for “hard skill” military-style training were raised two weeks ago in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“Is Fort Pickett a good option for the State Department and, second, is it good option for taxpayers?” asked Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., adding that he generally supports consolidation plans such as Homeland Security’s centralization of agencies at St. Elizabeths campus in Southeast Washington. But he too had questions about State’s process.

On the hot seat was Gregory Starr, assistant secretary for State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. He stressed that training diplomats in personal safety in dangerous areas is “a dynamic process,” citing recent attacks on U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere. The Fort Pickett project incorporates key recommendations of the post-Benghazi Accountability Review Board’s report, he added, and the site was selected from 70 properties explored by the General Services Administration.

“Fort Pickett is the only one that meets all our requirements,” Starr said, citing the need for disruptive heavy armored vehicles and helicopters during night-time training that can’t be close to civilian suburban subdivisions, as they would be at the alternative Georgia location. He also cited cost and convenience factors to a site a three-hour drive from Washington with increasing hotel space. State’s original proposal, Starr added, was for a $913 million training center that combines eight additional facilities that provide nearly 10,000 diplomats a year with recurring training in “soft skills” at sites such as Arlington Hall outside Washington. “We chose need, not want,” and cut the cost in half, he said, while reducing logistical expenses for diplomats and their families. The DHS site “doesn’t provide the kind of training we need, only criminal training,”  he said.

State’s original plan for a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center was delayed for a year when the Office of Management and Budget in 2013 stepped in and asked for more reviews of costs and consideration of an alternative proposal from Homeland Security that would have cost only $272 million.

OMB deferred to State, said David Mader, acting deputy director for management and controller, relying on the department’s “unique understanding of diplomatic missions abroad” to weigh such factors as types of training, easy access, support facilities and synergies with other agencies. “The administration supports Fort Pickett and put $99 million in funding in the fiscal 2016 budget,” Mader said.

Connie Patrick, director of the Georgia-based Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which provides law enforcement training to 86,000 federal employees yearly, said her facility already handles military activities such as planned explosions. “The qualitative issues need to be explored,” she said. But her agency now supports State’s facility going to central Virginia, she added, and her agency would be willing to offer best practices in controlling costs.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, announcing her “jab at the administration,” told Starr that “convenience may be nice but we want high quality. It’s more important that we have an administration that prioritizes the safety of diplomats in times of need,” she said. Having more “gizmos and gadgets does doesn’t do a bit of good” if you have an administration that “turns a deaf ear and blind eye to needs of men and women who serve.”

Sparks flew when the hearing turned to precise costs of transporting and housing diplomats three hours away by car or three hours away by airplane. Starr urged consideration of short and long-term costs, pegging the cost of flying diplomats to Georgia at $90 million over 10 years.

Chairman Johnson challenged that number, but had to backtrack from his own “back of the envelope” calculations.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., scolded Starr for lacking DHS’ precise numbers of weeks of training needed and hotel stays. “You can’t do a cost-benefit analysis without knowing the costs of making a business decision for taxpayers,” she said, criticizing State for not even considering the DHS option until late in the process. “I have other questions for someone better prepared than you. We need to stop this dead in its tracks.”

Starr told the senators they were “mixing apples and oranges” and that, while he may not have all the numbers at his fingertips, they have all been calculated and given to the Government Accountability Office, which is preparing a report on the issue for release next month.

Johnson said he looked forward to reading the GAO report (requested by lawmakers from Georgia) and holding a follow-up hearing that will “compare oranges to oranges.”