WASHINGTON, DC-In what could likely be another blow to the region's economy, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has proposed further military base closures and budget cuts as part of the Pentagon's 2015 budget.
It is unclear how the new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) plan, released at a briefing on Monday, would impact the D.C. area, which is still feeling the effects from the last round of base closures in 2005, according to the Washington Business Journal.
"We cannot fully achieve our goals for overhead reductions without cutting unnecessary and costly infrastructure," Hagel states in lobbying for a new BRAC round beginning in 2017. "I am mindful that Congress has not agreed to (our) BRAC requests of the last two years. But if Congress continues to block these requests even as they slash the overall budget, we will have to consider every local tool at our disposal to reduce infrastructure."
The 2005 BRAC plan created some major shifts at area bases including Fort Belvoir, Fort Detrick, Andrews Air Force Base and the National Naval Medical Center. Area landlords are still trying to fill the millions of square feet of vacant space created by the BRAC plan. See story in the Washington Business Journal.
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