Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Alaska's Senators Push for Information About F-16 Jets' Removal From Eielson Air Force Base

News Article

By Rod Boyce

Alaska's two U.S. senators continue to press Air Force officials for more details about the planned move of Eielson Air Force Base's F-16 squadron to Anchorage next year, saying the service is trying to get around a federal law requiring more disclosure to Congress.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the Air Force appears to be avoiding questions about the impact on civilian employees at Eielson. Murkowski and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, have been asking for the number of civilian and military personnel at Eielson who would be affected. The percentage of civilians affected could trigger a requirement for a report to Congress.

"I want to see that breakdown," Murkowski said in an interview Thursday from Washington, D.C. "It appears to me that we've got an attempt to end-run the requirement out there."

Asked if she trusted the Air Force on the topic, she said "I don't."

"I'm not being critical of the men and women who serve, but I think they have a lot more information than they are willing to share, and I think that that is unfortunate."

Begich, at a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley about what he said is a lack of detail about the number of civilian workers affected.

Schwartz said Eielson would be reduced by about 660 personnel but that he didn't know the split between military and civilian.

"This is the fourth request," Begich said of his effort to obtain the number of civilian jobs that would be affected by the move.

Begich said it was "critical" for Congress to have information on civilian numbers at Eielson and elsewhere and "for that not to be supplied to us is problematic" as the Armed Services Committee gets ready to work on the Defense Department's fiscal 2013 budget. He was also concerned that the Eielson plan has been sent to Congress prior to an April site visit to Alaska by an Air Force assessment team.

Begich's office said the Air Force has claimed the move won't affect any civilian workers in fiscal 2013 but that workers will be affected by the relocation in the subsequent four years. Begich has been asking, as he did at Tuesday's hearing, for specific civilian job numbers to determine if the Air Force is complying with the law.

"In order for you to make this decision that you brought to us, I'm assuming someone in the Pentagon had these discussions," Begich said.

Donley, flanked by Schwartz at a small table in front of the committee and with several uniformed Air Force leaders behind him, said the information would be forthcoming.

"We'll do the best we can to get you the numbers available on the timeline that you need," Donley said.

An Eielson public affairs officer said Thursday that the base has approximately 370 civilian employees total. It was unclear how many of those would be affected by the F-16 transfer.

Begich and Murkowski also expressed concern about civilian job numbers in a joint letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. In that Feb. 7 letter, the senators referenced a federal law that allows the military to make closures and realignments outside of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission process but only under certain circumstances.

The letter mentions a part of the law requiring the Defense Department to provide the House and Senate Armed Services Committees with additional details when reducing an installation's civilian workforce by more than 50 percent. The law requires the Defense Department officials to provide the committees with "an evaluation of the fiscal, local economic, budgetary, environmental, strategic, and operational consequences of such closure or realignment" and says no action can be taken for 60 calendar days from the time the information is given to the committees.

Murkowski said the Air Force will have to provide the information.

"Ultimately they are going to have to show it to us, right?," she said. "Why drag it out?"

Begich, earlier in his questioning of Donley and Schwartz, appeared skeptical of the Air Force's handling of Eielson. He said the current arguments for moving the aircraft out of Eielson are the same arguments made in 2005, when Eielson and other installations across the country were being closed or altered under the official Base Realignment and Closure Commission process. The independent base closure panel overrode the Defense Department and ordered the F-16s to remain at Eielson.

"We're not going through a BRAC process now. What you're going through is a "realignment,'" he said, making quotation marks with his fingers. "It's exactly the same debate. And so my concern now is, is this a process that's going to go around the loop?"

The move of Eielson's F-16s is part of an Air Force plan released last month that aims to cut $8.7 billion from the Air Force budget during the next five years. The proposals would affect 33 states and numerous U.S. installations overseas and in U.S. territories. It includes the retirement of more than 200 aircraft in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

The transfer of the F-16s and their support units would, according to the Air Force, save $32 million over five years. Schwartz said earlier, however, that the estimated savings does not take into account some upgrades that will be needed at the Anchorage base to accommodate the F-16s.

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