S.Res. 132 — Introduced in Senate

III 113th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 132 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 8, 2013 Mr. Begich (for himself, Mr. Tester, and Mr. Baucus) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Department of Defense request for domestic Base Realignment and Closure authority in 2015 and 2017 is neither affordable nor feasible as of the date of agreement to this resolution and that the Department of Defense must further analyze the capability to consolidate excess overseas infrastructure and increase efficiencies by relocating missions from overseas to domestic installations prior to requesting domestic Base Realignment and Closure authority. Whereas the Department of Defense claims a 24-percent surplus in domestic military infrastructure and has requested domestic Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) rounds in 2015 and 2017; Whereas Congress rejected a request for 2 BRAC rounds made by the Department of Defense in fiscal year 2013; Whereas the Senate Armed Services Committee noted in title XXIV of Senate Report 112–173 to accompany S. 3254 of the 112th Congress, that a request by the Department of Defense for authority to conduct a domestic BRAC round must be preceded by a comprehensive evaluation of opportunities to obtain efficiencies through the consolidation of the overseas operations of defense agencies and possible relocation back to the United States; Whereas the Base Structure Report for fiscal year 2012 of the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Installations and Environment, found that the Department of Defense has 666 military sites in foreign countries, including 232 in Germany, 109 in Japan, and 85 in South Korea; Whereas the United States has developed an increased capacity to rapidly deploy around the globe, thereby reducing the strategic value of an overseas footprint based largely on Cold War geopolitics and an obsolete National Security Strategy; Whereas the Government Accountability Office concluded in a 2007 study that the 2005 BRAC round was the most complex and costliest ever; Whereas the Government Accountability Office found in a 2012 report entitled Military Base Realignments and Closures: Updated Costs and Savings Estimates from BRAC 2005 that the 2005 BRAC round far exceeded estimated implementation costs, growing from $21,000,000,000 to $35,100,000,000, a 67-percent increase; Whereas the Government Accountability Office found in the 2012 report that the estimated 20-year savings for the 2005 BRAC round decreased by 72 percent from $35,600,000,000 to $9,900,000,000; Whereas the Government Accountability Office estimates that it will take until 2017 for the Department of Defense to recoup upfront implementation costs of BRAC 2005, 4 years longer than the BRAC Commission estimates and 12 years after the date of execution and initial investment; Whereas the Department of Defense would spend $2,400,000,000 in a time of fiscal austerity to execute the proposed BRAC round in 2015; Whereas the financial crisis in the United States continues to challenge local economies and a BRAC round would create more uncertainty and economic hardship for impacted communities still in the recovery process; Whereas Federal budget uncertainty and the fiscal challenges a domestic BRAC round would bring to communities renders the significant $2,400,000,000 in up-front costs neither affordable nor feasible as of the date of agreement to this resolution; and Whereas the lack of potential return on the significant investment required for a BRAC round may result in an inefficient use of taxpayer funds: Now, therefore, be it That it is the sense of the Senate that— (1) as of the date of agreement to this resolution, the Department of Defense should not be granted authority for the requested 2015 and 2017 Base Realignment and Closure rounds; (2) before granting the authority for the requested 2015 and 2017 BRAC rounds, the Department of Defense should achieve economic efficiencies by— (A) closing and consolidating excess infrastructure and facilities in overseas locations; and (B) reexamining relocation opportunities of overseas missions to United States military installations; and (3) the Department of Defense is unwise to request a BRAC round when the economy of the United States is struggling to recover and negatively impacted communities are fighting to put citizens back to work.