Military Bases

The Defense Department's (DOD) selection process for military base closures and alignments--165 installations have been targeted as of March 1993--is generally sound, but savings estimates were overstated by nearly $1 billion and questions can be raised about the reasonableness of some specific recommendations. For example, (1) because the Navy stressed reducing excess capacity, cases arose in which bases were slated for closure even though other bases were considered of less military value; (2) the Army chose not to recommend a base for closure because of environmental cleanup costs--a reason excluded from calculations of closure costs; (3) existing documentation provides little insight into the reasoning behind some of the Air Force's final decisions, although Air Force officials' oral explanations seemed to make sense; and (4) the Defense Logistics Agency overstated estimated realignment savings. Furthermore, oversight by the Secretary of Defense during the base closure process was weak. The standards used for DOD's cumulative economic impact analyses were not supportable, and DOD continued to ignore government cost implications despite earlier GAO recommendations to the contrary. The effect of DOD's recommendations on federal agencies could be substantial, especially if the military moves out of General Services Administration buildings into new DOD facilities. In addition, hospital closings would also boost government Medicare costs.