Base Realignment and Closure, known as BRAC, is our single most important reform initiative -- both because it is needed to shrink our infrastructure to match our 21^st century needs, and because it promises the greatest savings.

As a result of the first four rounds of BRAC, the Department of Defense will save $14.5 billion dollars by 2001, with recurring savings of about $5.7 billion each year thereafter. This money is critical to higher priority programs such as modernization and military readiness.

In the President’s fiscal year 2000 budget request, two additional rounds of base closings are requested from Congress.

Because every community surrounding a military base is affected by its closing, DoD works to minimize the impact and turn the bases over to communities for use by dynamic, growth-oriented private enterprises that benefit the community.

Since Ft. Devens, Massachusetts closed in March of 1996 about 2,000 jobs have been created at the Devens Commerce Center located at the former base.

Nationwide sixty percent of the civilian jobs lost from base closings have been replaced. The number of new jobs grows every year, leading in many communities to far more jobs than DoD previously provided.