Base Realignments

In response to a congressional request, GAO surveyed several issues associated with the Department of Defense's (DOD) placement of an Air Force base on an illustrative list of bases which Congress could consider for closure.

GAO found that: (1) although the DOD Authorization Act for 1986 no longer requires DOD to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in developing base closure or realignment actions, DOD officials believe that DOD must comply with NEPA provisions, and such compliance could take up to a year to accomplish; (2) the DOD estimate of the costs and savings associated with the listing of the base included data on military construction and other costs from a base closure computer model; (3) the estimates did not contain a present value analysis as required by DOD instructions; (4) because DOD maintained insufficient documentation to support the estimates, GAO was unable to determine the reasonableness of the annual recurring savings and one-time costs associated with the closure of the base; and (5) while DOD did not rank the importance of the base, Air Force officials believe that it should be retained because it is a strategic asset, contributes to a high level of aerial refueling activity, and accommodates the realignments which result from the fielding of the B-1 bomber.