The Belvoir Shuffle

Let me get this straight: First the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission votes to shift thousands of jobs from leased facilities in northern Virginia to Fort Belvoir. Then, when it becomes clear that this will create a traffic nightmare, officials push the idea of instead moving some of the folks to land in Springfield, Va., that is currently home to General Services Administration warehouses.

Now, the Washington Post reports, the Springfield site faces some competition from a piece of property in Alexandria that developers are pushing the Army to consider. Some or all of the jobs slated for Springfield could ultimately end up at the Alexandria site.

It's now starting to look like this shift --which affects about 6,000 of the more than 22,000 jobs originally targeted for consolidation at Fort Belvoir -- will simply move people out of one set of leased space in Virginia to another. If that's the case, my question is: Why bother? Wasn't the whole point of the BRAC move to get these agencies out of leased offices and onto a military base?