The Defense Department hasn't made much headway in its push for two more rounds of base closures and is stuck with an inefficient process for privatizing operations, Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre acknowledged Thursday at a panel discussion on defense reform.
"It's hard to close bases, I recognize that," Hamre said at a breakfast hosted by the National Defense University Foundation. But DoD is committed to improving its business operations, and that includes getting rid of excess infrastructure, he said.
Under the Defense Reform Initiative, the Pentagon is streamlining business areas such as contracting, procurement, personnel and infrastructure. In connection with that process, Secretary of Defense William Cohen has been pushing for two additional rounds of base closures since 1997. To date, DoD estimates it has saved $3.5 billion from the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process and will save $25 billion by 2003 if Congress approves the additional closures.
"We will still make a try" for further closures, Hamre said, but admitted that it was unlikely Congress would agree to additional BRAC rounds during Cohen's tenure. "We'll be giving our successor twice removed the problem," he said.
DoD doesn't have the spirit of trust right now that it takes to get base closures approved, Hamre acknowledged, because of problems that occurred during the last BRAC rounds. In 1996, lawmakers were upset with President Clinton for what they viewed as political interference in BRAC rounds involving Air Force depots in vote-rich California and Texas. Hamre also said pressure from lobbyists is hard to overcome in towns that may be affected by the closure process.
Defense privatization via Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 is another area of defense reform that has fallen short of its goals, Hamre said. DoD plans to outsource at least 200,000 positions over the next four years, he said, but the process has been less successful than anyone had hoped.
"Over the years we've committed to a process that nobody likes," Hamre said. "The current system punishes everybody and rewards nobody." The process is painful for federal employees because they risk losing their jobs, he noted. At the same time, private companies believe A-76 competitions are rigged in favor of the employees. The Defense Department "must find a way to improve these inefficiencies," he said.
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