Base closures are a toxic issue among Democrats and Republicans alike. Lawmakers take stand vs. BRAC

The White House is determined to shutter bases as it draws down the size of the military — a plan Pentagon leaders say is vital to the Defense Department’s long-term fiscal health.

But on Capitol Hill, base closures are a toxic issue among Democrats and Republicans alike.


In his budget request for the next fiscal year, President Barack Obama proposed a 2015 round of Base Realignment and Closure. Already, though, lawmakers with bases at stake back home are fighting to overturn the plan, just as they did last year.

Here’s a look at five military installations most at risk of being shuttered under another round of BRAC — and the political forces conspiring to keep them open.

Naval Submarine Base New London

Connecticut Democrats launched a full-on BRAC attack last week following the release of the president’s budget request with Sen. Richard Blumenthal calling the plan “dead on arrival.”

Rep. Joe Courtney, meanwhile, told a local newspaper that BRAC would be met with “a high wall of resistance.” And not to be outdone, Sen. Chris Murphy pledged to “stop it in its tracks.”

Their fears are well-founded.

During the previous round of BRAC, in 2005, Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut barely survived — and it would almost certainly be on the chopping block if BRAC is allowed to go forward in 2015.

The installation, which bills itself as the Navy’s “first and finest submarine base,” was slated to be closed under the Pentagon’s 2005 list of recommendations with its subs set to be relocated to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia and Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.

In its 2005 BRAC report, the Pentagon estimated it would save $1.6 billion over 20 years by scrapping the base. But the impacts on the local economy would have been devastating, with 9.4 percent of the area’s employment — or about 16,000 jobs — affected by the closure.

Ultimately, state officials rallied around the base and succeeded in keeping it open. Eight years later — and with a touch of naval humor — the Connecticut delegation is laying the groundwork for a repeat performance. “I think I can say with ironclad certainty there won’t be BRAC language in that bill when it leaves the House,” Courtney told Connecticut’s The Day newspaper.

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

New Hampshire’s senators are locking arms to stop the closure of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, just across the border in neighboring Maine.

Sens. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, issued a joint statement last week — soon after the release of the administration’s budget request — saying “now is not the time” for BRAC.

Their stated reason? The upfront costs of shuttering bases are just too high. The Pentagon requested $2.4 billion in fiscal 2014 to cover moves, environmental remediation and other costs.

But the New Hampshire Senate delegation’s opposition to BRAC is also rooted in local politics. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard supports thousands of jobs in the region. And for several decades, shipyard workers in the area have been fighting — successfully — to save the troubled installation from closure.

The Defense Department has been mulling over the idea of closing the shipyard for many years, sparking a local Save Our Shipyard campaign that continues to this day. And during the 2005 BRAC round, the naval installation was marked for death, with the Pentagon saying it didn’t need the shipyard and could save nearly $1.3 billion over 20 years by shuttering the installation.

At the time, the Pentagon wanted to relocate the work performed in Portsmouth to Naval Station Norfolk, Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state.

But the BRAC Commission struck the proposal from its final report, bowing to the well-organized local lobbying campaign and allowing the shipyard to live to see another BRAC fight.

Ellsworth Air Force Base

Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota is home to the 28th Bomb Wing, which barely survived the previous round of BRAC — and became a major factor in a 2004 Senate race.

That year, Republican challenger John Thune tangled with then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, over which candidate would be better able to save the base.

Thune defeated Daschle by a razor-thin margin and became a major advocate for Ellsworth, even pushing a bill that would have delayed the BRAC process entirely.

Eight years later, Thune is the Senate’s third-ranking Republican and would be a major obstacle if the Pentagon once again considers closing the base.

Cannon Air Force Base

If the Pentagon had its way, New Mexico’s Cannon Air Force Base would already be closed.

The base was to be shuttered under the Defense Department’s 2005 BRAC proposal, with the base’s F-16 fighters sent to other bases across the country. The proposal would have saved $2.7 billion over 20 years, according to the Pentagon’s estimates.

But under pressure from then-Gov. Bill Richardson and other New Mexico politicians, the BRAC Commission came up with a compromise: The F-16s would leave Cannon, and Pentagon leaders would have until 2009 to come up with an alternate plan for the base.

Soon after, the Air Force relocated the 27th Special Operations Wing to Cannon, allowing it to stay open.

This year, the New Mexico delegation is gearing up for another fight. In February, for instance, Democratic Sen. Tom Udall pointed to Cannon as he touted the state’s military assets during an Appropriations Committee hearing on the impacts of sequestration.

“New Mexico’s military’s installations,” he said, “are unique to our nation’s national security objectives due to New Mexico’s large unencumbered air space, unique geography and intellectual capital.”

Otis Air National Guard Base

A number of bases in Massachusetts could be scaled back or closed if BRAC goes forward in 2015 — a big issue for the state’s politicians.

The possibility of base closures even came up last year during Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign against then-Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican.

During the campaign, Warren pledged to “fight” to prevent cuts to Westover Air Reserve Base, which she said shouldn’t lose a “penny” in funding.

But Otis Air National Guard Base could be even more vulnerable than Westover, having barely survived the last round of BRAC.

Under the Pentagon’s 2005 proposal, the base’s F-15 fighters were set to be relocated to military bases in Florida and New Jersey. The proposal, according to the Defense Department, would have saved $336 million over 20 years.

But in its final plan, the BRAC Commission decided instead to “realign” the base, moving some of its assets to other bases but allowing it to stay open — for now.