Washington - New Jersey's U.S. Senators have introduced legislation that would trigger a reconsideration of major base closings that will cost far more than what was estimated during the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) are keenly aware of some of the wildly inaccurate cost estimates used in the BRAC process, since the closing of New Jersey's Fort Monmouth is now expected to cost almost twice its original $780 million price tag.

"The point of this process was to reduce costs, but now the price tag for some of these base closings is ballooning out of control and taxpayers are the ones carrying the burden," said Menendez. "If taxpayers are being forced to foot an enormous bill they weren't expecting, there should be an escape hatch. In New Jersey, we have communities and families that will be greatly impacted by the closing of Fort Monmouth. Knowing that the decision was based on miscalculations and misinformation does not sit well with our state, and it should not sit well with taxpayers across the country either."

"This bill would require real accountability and transparency in the base closure process. It would ensure that excessive cost overruns in closing a base like Fort Monmouth never happen again. It would also provide a method to review the closure of Fort Monmouth so that we can reevaluate the decision to close the base that was based upon faulty information. I look forward to working to get this legislation enacted into law," said Sen. Lautenberg.

Menendez-Lautenberg BRAC Cost Overruns Protection Act of 2007 (BRAC COP Act of 2007)

Summary

The point of the BRAC process is to reduce costs. But the cost of BRAC has ballooned out of control - from the BRAC Commission's original, one-time implementation cost estimate of $21 billion to a current price tag of $30 billion - a 43% increase. The Menendez legislation simply tries to control these excessive costs and ensure that BRAC is maximizing our tax payers' money. The legislation works from a basic principle, already in existing law, that we need to take another look if the costs have increased by more than 25 percent.

Details

The legislation is based on principles found in existing law concerning cost overruns in weapons programs, known as the "Nunn-McCurdy" amendment. (The "Nunn-McCurdy" amendment was included in the Fiscal Year 1982 Defense Authorization Act.) The Menendez legislation will create a trigger mechanism to require a re-evaluation of any major base realignment or closure should the actual cost exceed BRAC's estimated cost by more than 25 percent.


How the trigger mechanism is designed

(1) The Secretary of Defense will write biannual reports on the cost of implementing the pending base closure or realignment recommendations mandated by BRAC law.

(2) If the Secretary determines that the actual cost of implementing a major base closure or realignment recommendation has exceeded the original cost estimate - which was the basis for the law passed by Congress - by more than 25 percent, the Secretary shall:

a.) notify the Chairman and Ranking Member of Congressional Defense Committees

b.) devise a business plan to reduce the cost of the base closure or

realignment (without re-adjusting the baseline estimated cost) so that it does not exceed a 25 percent increase

(3) Within 45 days, the Secretary of Defense will submit a recommendation to the President on whether to continue the base closure or realignment.*

(4) Within 30 days of receiving the Secretary's recommendation, the President will make a recommendation to Congress on whether to continue the base closure or realignment.

(5) Congress has the option to vote to disapprove the President's recommendation.

* If the Secretary of Defense recommends that the President continue or modify the base closure or realignment, despite the excessive cost overruns, the Secretary must include in his recommendation to the President an explanation of why it is necessary to continue implementing the recommendation.

The term "major base closure and realignment" shall include any base cloture and/or realignment that requires $150 million or more in military construction costs and an overall, one-time implementation cost of $300 million or more.

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