Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process used by the Congress of the United States to reduce and consolidate the excess capacity of military installations in order to save operation and maintenance costs. This often has a tremendous economic impact on the communitites surrounding the bases. Hence, political considerations make it very difficult to reduce or eliminate military installations one at a time. The Congress therefore created the BRAC process in 1988 as a politically palatable way to reduce military infrastructure and cost. The BRAC Commission, working with the United States Department of Defense, develops a list of military installations to realign, consolidate and/or eliminate. Congress votes to approve or dissapprove the entire list, rather than voting on each individual installation. If Congress does not disapprove the recommendations, the list becomes law. Congress must authorize each BRAC round. There have been four previous BRAC rounds in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1995. Over 350 military bases have been closed due to BRAC. The next candidates for BRAC will be announced by the President of the United States by September 23, 2005.

External Links

• Office of the Secretary of Defense, Base Realignment and Closure (http://www.defenselink.mil/brac/)