Hearing of the Readiness Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee - Implementation of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Decisions

Statement

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REP. MIKE ROGERS (R-AL): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think my questions will be, like most people's questions, very parochial.

I have Fort Benning, which straddles the Georgia-Alabama line, as you know. And I'm wondering if you can tell me how many soldiers are going to be relocated to Fort Benning as a part of BRAC?

MR. GRONE: The last -- sir, the last information I had from the Army on that was just shy of 4,000 permanent parties.

REP. ROGERS: How many families -- total individuals?

MR. GRONE: I don't have a specific number of families. What I've -- what I have is what I think are the number of students that may be there longer than three months -- under three months.

And the military students staying at Benning longer than three months I have at just nearly 1,200 students. I could try to break that back down to how many personnel with families, but I don't know that we specifically know that yet until we get through all the PCS process.

But that's the estimate for right now for how many students.

REP. ROGERS: But the figure I've heard from the military is they're expecting a total of 35,000 people to be coming to the Benning area -- on post and off post -- as a result of this BRAC.

MR. GRONE: Well, that may be. There's -- there are a combination of factors there. One is, the military and civilian personnel and their family members, the estimates right now are somewhere around 13,000 folks.

Layered into that, particularly from a local perspective, as you're trying to do planning, are people trying to do estimates for what kind of contractor support base might also come with that.

And so the Army will make representations as to the personnel that they control -- military and civilian personnel and related family members -- and then there will be a larger discussion about the contractor base.

And that's occasionally where we have some folks occasionally maybe talking past each other -- not willfully -- but I understand a baseline is important.

REP. ROGERS: Well, my understanding is Benning is one of eight facilities around the country that's going to experience dramatic growth as a result of the relocating of missions in the BRAC. And they have the same concerns, I think, that the other seven communities have, and that is, how do we absorb -- from an infrastructure standpoint off post -- these new folks in schools and hospitals?

The superintendents of the school systems on both the Georgia side and the Alabama side have talked with me about if there's going to be any one-time funding to help them expand their facilities to accommodate the new students.

Can you tell me if you have any plans to do that in any of these communities?

MR. GRONE: Well, the department traditionally has not provided appropriated funds for that purpose beyond the -- (name inaudible) -- school system.

We are working -- we have provided planning grants to communities in the states -- local education authorities.

There are discussions ongoing about how to think about the impact data question, maybe in a different forum. That's very preliminary; no decisions are made.

But we don't have a program other than some programs that the Department of Education has -- grant programs that provide brick and mortar construction.

This week in St. Louis we have the Office of Economic Adjustment with the federal interagency -- agencies represented under the Economic Adjustment Committee, which I chair in the interagency on behalf of the secretary -- are meeting with the growth communities, and a principal part of that discussion is education. There's also a track on transportation and other associated infrastructure issues as we all continue to work together to have the infrastructure in the communities where we're going to have growth, be able to support that as it comes on line.

REP. ROGERS: Well, I know that in a previous BRAC when we lost Fort McClellan in my congressional district, it had a huge economic impact on the district. But to their credit, the Army was very helpful in helping the community transition.

I think that there should be a little bit more sensitivity to these communities who are going to have to absorb all these new people. And I would like to know, do you have an individual in your office that these local officials can make contact with to talk about their concerns?

MR. GRONE: The director of the Office of Economic Adjustment, Mr. Patrick O'Brien, is the principal leader on that from an economic adjustment perspective. We have a team of folks -- I know some of those folks have -- are working with folks in the Fort Benning area. I know he'd be pleased to come up and have a conversation with you about issues that are concerning you. I mean, it's a pretty important part of what we do from a planning perspective.

REP. ROGERS: Great, I'd like to do that.

And my last question is, do you know the timeline for the armor center moving from -- to Benning from Fort Knox?

MR. GRONE: I'm sorry, sir?

REP. ROGERS: Do you know what the timeline is for the armor center to move from Fort Knox to Benning?

MR. GRONE: I don't have that specifically in front of me today, but I can get that to you this afternoon. It's not a -- that's a -- that's not a -- (inaudible) -- question to answer.

REP. ROGERS: I'd appreciate that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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