HISTORY

BRAC 2005: An Overview

On November 9, 2005, the President of the United States signed into law the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission. With this action, 16 Department of Defense (DoD) agencies and activities were directed to vacate 4.2 million square feet of office space in Arlington. Associated with this space are an estimated 17,000 jobs that will be relocated to military installations. By law, these relocations must occur by September 15, 2011.

Virginia Leaders Testify on Behalf of Arlington at the 2005 BRAC Hearings.
L to R: Governor Mark Warner, Congressman Tom Davis, Senator John Warner, Congressman Jim Moran, and Arlington Board Chairman Jay Fisette

What Happened:

In May 2005, the DoD issued a list which recommended all Defense Department agencies and activities that would be realigned: moved, consolidated or closed. Arlington quickly learned that it would be the most affected jurisdiction in the country by BRAC. No other state, city or county stood to loose as many jobs or leased office space as Arlington in the entire country. Learn more

What Arlington Did:

Arlington quickly mobilized a bipartisan group of local, state and federal lawmakers to assess the potential damage, and began work to retain as many DoD agencies in Arlington as possible. Virginia Governor Mark Warner, Senator John Warner, Congressman Jim Moran, Congressman Tom Wolf, and Arlington County Board Chairman Jay Fisette joined together in an attempt to retain over 20,000 jobs in Arlington and Alexandria.

Arlingtonians and DoD employees also joined the fight. Town meetings were convened where employees from DoD agencies such as DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, the Missile Defense Agency, DISA and others voiced their concerns about the prospect of moving from Arlington.

As one DoD employee stated: "I'd rather flip burgers in Arlington than move."

The Final Outcome:

The BRAC Capital Area hearing was held on July 7, 2005. Testimony was heard from Governor Mark Warner, Senator John Warner, Congressman Jim Moran, Congressman Tom Wolf, and Arlington Board Chairman Jay Fisette. Following testimony, the BRAC Committee unanimously voted to keep the Extramural Research Agencies in Arlington. They include the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO) and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Nevertheless, the vast majority of the original recommendations were confirmed, and Arlington was faced with the loss of 4.2 million square feet of office space and the loss of 17,000 jobs by 2011.

The Future:

Arlington is now working with leaders at the local, state and federal levels to help manage the BRAC transition. It convened a BRAC Transition Task Force which studied the effects of BRAC and made recommendations to the Arlington County Board. After successfully applying for federal funding, Arlington will open the BRAC Transition Center at 1750 Crystal Drive in Crystal City to help affected employees and the many small businesses that are dependent upon DoD agencies. Learn more

Additional Background Information

The Department of Defense Report of May 2005

DoD's recommendations had five basic goals:

  1. Transforming the current and future force and its support systems to meet new threats;
  2. Eliminating excess physical capacity;
  3. Reconciling the base infrastructure with the new defense strategy;
  4. Maximizing both warfighting capability and efficiency; and
  5. Examining opportunities for joint activities.

The following themes emerged from their recommendations:

  1. Support force transformation;
  2. Rebase forces to address new threat, strategy, and force protection concerns;
  3. Consolidate business-oriented support functions;
  4. Promote joint and multi-Service basing; and
  5. Achieve savings.

The complete Department of Defense: Base Closure and Realignment Report: May 2005 can be found on their Web site.

Unified Facilities Criteria: Department of Defense Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings

At the Town Meeting of July 19, 2006, held by Representatives James Moran and Tom Davis, a presentation describing the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) (3.7 MB; PowerPoint) was made by Joseph Hartman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The complete Criteria can be found on the Department of Defense Web site or on the National Institute of Building Sciences' Whole Building Design Guide Web site.

Other resources of interest:
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