Bid to Delay BRAC Moves Advances

By Charles S. Clark

The push by Northern Virginia lawmakers to delay Pentagon plans to move thousands of employees to new digs in Alexandria got a major boost on Thursday with House passage of the fiscal 2012 Defense authorization bill. The legislation includes a cap on parking at the newly completed Mark Center off of I-95, a tactic employed by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., to force the Defense Department to cough up money for traffic abatement (new exit ramps, for example) as part of his longstanding opposition to moves required for national security reasons by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

"This parking cap is critical to prevent a traffic nightmare that will be caused by full occupation of the Mark Center this fall," said Moran. "The alternative is unendurable delays on already overcrowded roads."

Also in the bill is a provision giving authority to the Defense Secretary to delay seven BRAC relocations for up to one year. Some 20,000 employees of various Army offices and agencies such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are being moved from sites such as Bethesda, Md., and the Arlington neighborhood of Crystal City out to Fort Belvoir in Fairfax. About 6,400 are set to move to Mark Center, which is not near public transportation. This winter, the Pentagon's approach to managing the impact on traffic was faulted for poor methodology, and some local officials have considered filing a lawsuit.

Moran's amendment, which passed by voice vote on Thursday, is backed by fellow Democrat Rep. Gerry Connolly, and Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, as well as Republican Rep. Frank Wolf. The Senate is expected to take up the bill late this summer. A spokeswoman for Webb told Government Executive, "We will look for opportunities to address this issue."