Bilbray sees hard work for BRAC commission

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, July 11, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

The BRAC commission Web site is www.brac.gov

The Defense Department's BRAC Web site is www.defenselink.mil

WASHINGTON -- As former Nevada Rep. James Bilbray travels the country visiting military sites slated to be closed by the Defense Department, he hears similar pleas from elected officials, military employees and their families: "Save our base."

Bilbray, 67, is part of the nine-member commission tasked with carrying out the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure process, known as BRAC. The commission must send a finalized list of bases to be closed or realigned to the president by Sept. 8. Bilbray has visited 15 states in roughly six weeks for regional hearings and specific site visits, gathering information to evaluate whether a base should stay or be removed from the Pentagon's recommendation list.

"Some of them have strong cases," he said, while others have weaker cases or want the military to move on so the community can use the land.

"All the low hanging fruit has been picked in previous BRAC rounds," Bilbray said, which makes his job harder because the remaining facilities to be closed are not as easy as past rounds.

The commissioners earn $537.81 per day to work for the commission. The government also covers their travel expenses.

The Defense Department released its initial recommendations for base closures or changes to a facility's operations in May. Through the changes, Nellis Air Force Base could gain about 1,400 military and civilian workers, but the Hawthorne Army Depot may close, forcing hundreds out of work, along with other lost jobs at the Air National Guard 152nd Airlift Wing at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. The Naval Air Station at Fallon may lose a handful of positions.

BRAC Commissioner Philip Coyle will visit the depot in Mineral County today as well as the Reno Airport. The Pentagon wants to move eight C-130s from the wing station at the airport to another base.

Coyle will report back on his visit to the other commissioners and staff, just as Bilbray has done for the 12 site visits he has done so far. Bilbray will visit three facilities in California this week before overseeing a regional hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The site visits allow the commissioners to get a closer look at sites that may close or change. Bilbray said they tour the sites and talk to officials there about their work, how much has been invested in the site and what they do.

"I've seen more hangars than I've ever wanted to see in my life," Bilbray said.

Bilbray said the economic impact of closing a base or other facility "weighs heavily" on the commission's final picks. The Pentagon's own recommendations may not have considered all the elements of removing the military's presence from a community, but Bilbray said the commission will.

They also look at new infrastructure on the base compares to older facilities, how the military uses the base and numerous other criteria.

"It's a big heavy weight on the scale," Bilbray said. "Some of these places are devastated by these things."

He said on paper the Pentagon may say a closing can save $7 million a year and more over the long term, but when cleanup costs, lost tax revenue and money spent to move people to a new base or even to build on to a new base are factured in, the move may outweigh that money saved.

At the regional hearings, community members often show up by the busload sporting T-shirts or posters with Web sites hoping to sway the commissioners to save their specific place. State legislatures pass resolutions objecting to closings and everyone from governors, senators, house members and state lawmakers speak in support of their site. An estimated 3,000 people showed up at a hearing in Alaska, where the Pentagon recommended changes to Eielson Air Force Base alone may cost almost 2,900 jobs. Eielson's change along with other recommendations to the state would cost 4,619 jobs, according to the Pentagon.

Planes from the Eielson's 354th Fighter Wing would be moved to bases in Louisiana and Georgia, including 18 F-16s going to Nellis. The Pentagon said the bases's military value is high, but it is an expensive base to "operate and improve," according to its recommendations. Making the changes could save as estimated $2 billion over 20 years, according to the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, dozens of people from Willow Grove, Penn., and nearby cities filled the Cannon House Office building caucus room on July 7 wearing matching yellow T-shirts labeled "SaveWillowGrove.com." One person wore a tall red, white and blue Uncle Sam-style hat covered in pins with "Save Willow Grove" on it, while a woman wore a red straw hat covered in white and blue flowers and sparkly stars to draw attention to their cause.

Chris Scheide, 32, of Willow Grove, got on a bus at 6:30 a.m. to make the trek to Washington to sit in the audience at the hearing.

Scheide said she wanted to show her support for the community, especially its economic future. The hearing was the second vacation day she took in the last two weeks to support the base. She participated in a rally last month.

"It shows the community is behind them, we believe in the base and want their presence there," Scheide said.

Scheide said communities complain about the bases' noise or environmental contamination but Willow Grove wants the military there. Closing the base takes away from the whole East Coast, not just the community, because of its proximity to major cities like Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., she said. The base is home to a new radar facility for the Homeland Security Department as well.

"In a time like now, I don't know why they would do this," Scheide said, emphasizing the news of the subway bombings in London that morning. "This is not the time to start decreasing this."

Willow Grove is a Naval Air Station Join Reserve Base. The Pentagon wants to move all the Navy and Marine Corps squadrons, their plans, personnel, and equipment to McGuire Air Force Base in Cookstown, N.J., with other equipment and work going to other bases along the East Coast and as far as Idaho. The Pentagon believes closing the base would save $710 million over 20 years.

Beside an audience of supporters, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., other lawmakers and state military officials made their case for leaving Willow Grove and other sites in the state open.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Penn., spoke to save Willow Grove, even though it is not in his district, because he thinks it should remain open. Weldon supports base closings in general and has even testified in support of closing facilities in his district, he said, but he felt he needed to go to the commission directly.

"They're not looking at T-shirts." Weldon said. "It's not about the number of people coming down here. They're looking at the substance."

Bilbray said large groups of people and T-shirts are like "a teeny feather added to the scale."

"I can't tell you it helps a great deal," Bilbray said, but he noted that visible community support might give a site that slight push it needs.

"We go to some places and no one show ups because no one cares," he said. Some places want to close a base through this process because they get money to help through the transition from the government.

Still, people find talking to the commission helpful to their cause.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams called his testimony Thursday "crucial" to the district's effort to keep the Walter Reed Army Medical Center open.

Paul Strauss, the district's "Shadow Senator," said making the statements made under oath and with the formality and seriousness of a hearing give arguments credibility.

"We can only appeal to their consciences," Strauss said. "They need to hear it from you. They deserve to be looked in theirs eyes and have the case made."

Bilbray said the commission is still evaluating everything and votes will not be taken to consider adding sites to the list until July 18. If a site is considered to be added, two commissioners must visit it and report back to the others. A final decision on whether to add the list could be made by the end of the month.

Bilbray predicts " a lot of changes (to) and denials" of the Pentagon's recommendations.

"I don't think our adds will be as substantial as in the past, I don't see that happening," he said.

Bilbray said the commission has heard of a lot of discrepancies in what the Air Force has reported on numbers and what actually exists on the their bases. Some have used older information and it appears the Air Force did not include state military officials in preparation of the recommendation.

"We're there to correct some of these mistakes," Bilbray said.

The commission and its staff will go through all the hearing records and comments they have received and complete a report that will go with their list to the president.

Bilbray's involvement with the final list does not really help or hurt Nevada's potential closures or change. He understands closing Hawthorne could have a "devastating" impact on the community, but ethics rule bar him from doing much about it.

Bilbray, a Democrat, represented Las Vegas and Clark County for four terms in House of Representatives starting in 1987. He joined the Las Vegas law firm of Kummer Kaempfer Bonner & Renshaw in 1996, where he specializes in dealing with local, state and federal issues.

"I have to be neutral on it," Bilbray said. "I expressed myself before this happened, but I can't vote on it. Nevada doesn't play into it."

Bilbray disagreed with the recommendation he recuse himself from Nevada-related votes, but did not fight it. He said he only represented Southern Nevada in Congress and did not see a conflict. Other members of the commission will also not vote on their states.

To remove a recommendations from the list, a site has to get five of the nine commissioners votes. Any of the Nevada sites would have to get five of eight votes because Bilbray has to abstain. To add a site, seven of the nine have to approve.

The president has until Sept. 23 to accept or reject the recommendations as a whole. If the President rejects the list, it goes back to the commission for some changes. The commission has until Oct. 20 to send a new list to the president. The president than has until Nov. 7 to approve the report and send it to Congress.

Congress has 45 days from the day it receives the report from the President to enact a joint resolution to reject the report in full, or the report becomes law. If president does not approve or transmit either the commission's initial or revised recommendations, the closure process ends.

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