What Is BRAC? The Base Realignment and Closure Process

Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, is the process the Department of Defense uses to shut down or reorganize military installations that no longer fit current defense needs. Congress has authorized five rounds since 1988, and together they have designated 424 bases or parts of bases for closure or realignment, producing what the DoD estimates at roughly $12 billion in recurring annual savings.¹ The process is built around an independent commission and an all-or-nothing vote in Congress, both designed to keep individual lawmakers from blocking closures in their own districts.

Why the Process Exists

The problem BRAC addresses is excess infrastructure. U.S. military force structure shrank significantly after the Cold War, but the installations built to support those forces did not shrink with them. Paying to run bases the military no longer fully uses draws money away from equipment, training, and personnel. In January 2025, the DoD told Congress that the services continue to carry excess capacity in certain categories of facilities.¹

Technology drives the process too. Weapons systems, logistics, and training requirements change, and the physical footprint the military needs changes with them. BRAC gives the department a way to realign where it operates, rather than staying where it happened to build decades ago.

The Commission and the All-or-Nothing Vote

The heart of the process is an independent commission. Before BRAC existed, closing a base was almost impossible because every affected member of Congress fought to protect installations at home. The commission structure packages closure decisions into a single list that has to be accepted or rejected as a whole, which takes most of the political pressure off individual votes.

Under the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990, commissioners are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and the statute directs the President to consult with congressional leadership on several of the seats.² For the 2005 round, nine commissioners were nominated and ultimately recess-appointed.³ The commission reviews the DoD’s proposed list, holds public hearings, visits installations, and can accept, reject, or modify individual recommendations.

Neither the President nor Congress can then cherry-pick the result. The President either approves the commission’s final report, rejects it, or sends it back for revisions. Once approved, the report goes to Congress, which has 45 legislative days to accept or reject the entire package with no changes.⁴ If Congress does nothing within that window, the recommendations become law automatically.⁵

That design is what makes the process work. A lawmaker can publicly fight a closure at home while still voting for the overall package, because rejecting the list would kill every other closure and realignment along with it.

How a Round Moves From Analysis to Closed Gates

A BRAC round unfolds in phases.

Analysis and Recommendation

The DoD starts by measuring its infrastructure against a 20-year force structure plan that projects future military needs.⁵ Each service evaluates its installations against published selection criteria and develops a proposed list. The Secretary of Defense compiles a unified list and sends it to the commission.

Commission Review

The commission conducts its own review over several months, running public hearings where affected communities testify, visiting installations, and reworking the DoD’s data. It can add installations to the list, drop them, or convert a closure to a realignment or the reverse. The final report goes to the President.

Implementation

Once the recommendations become law, the DoD must begin closures and realignments within two years and finish all actions within six.⁵ Some pieces stretch well beyond that. Property disposal, environmental cleanup, and community redevelopment can run for decades. The FY2025 budget still included $448 million for environmental restoration and caretaker costs at facilities closed under earlier rounds.¹

How Installations Get Picked

The Secretary of Defense must publish selection criteria. For the 2005 round there were eight, split into two tiers, with military value given priority over everything else.⁶

The four military value criteria are:

Mission capability, meaning the installation’s current and future ability to support operations, joint warfighting, training, and readiness.
Land and facilities, meaning the availability and condition of land, buildings, and associated airspace, including training areas with varied terrain and climate.
Surge capacity, meaning the ability to accommodate mobilization, contingency operations, and future force requirements.
Operating cost, meaning what it costs to run the installation and its manpower implications.

The other four criteria cover the timing and extent of potential costs and savings, the economic impact on surrounding communities, whether receiving communities can support relocated forces and personnel, and environmental impact including restoration and compliance costs.⁶

To weigh the money side, the DoD runs a tool called the Cost of Base Realignment Actions model, or COBRA, which calculates one-time costs and recurring savings for each proposed action so alternatives can be compared on a consistent basis.⁷ The DoD acknowledges the model was not designed for detailed budgeting. The 2005 round underscored the point: one-time implementation costs rose from an estimated $21 billion to about $35.1 billion, a 67 percent increase driven largely by construction overruns, and projected 20-year net savings fell from $35.6 billion to roughly $9.9 billion.⁸

What Happens to the Base and the Community Afterward

Closing a base can hit local employment, housing, and schools hard. Federal law and DoD policy provide several mechanisms to help communities plan and recover.

Local Redevelopment Authorities and Federal Help

Each affected community typically forms a Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA), the single entity the DoD recognizes as responsible for developing a reuse plan. The LRA gathers community input, coordinates with federal agencies, and produces the blueprint that guides how property is transferred and used. The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation provides technical and financial assistance to states, counties, municipalities, and regions working through that process.⁹

Property Transfer

One of the main transfer tools is the Economic Development Conveyance, which lets the DoD transfer property to the LRA at or below fair market value, or at no cost, when the transfer will generate jobs and economic activity. The application must describe intended uses, project the number and type of new jobs, and include a business plan with a financial feasibility analysis.¹⁰ If the LRA receives property below market value, it must reinvest any proceeds from selling or leasing the property back into economic development of the site within seven years.

Property can also be conveyed to state and local governments at no cost for public purposes such as law enforcement facilities under the Public Benefit Conveyance Program.¹¹

Environmental Cleanup

Cleanup is often the longest and most expensive phase. Military installations frequently carry contamination from industrial activity, fuel storage, munitions use, and hazardous materials. Under CERCLA (Superfund), the DoD must ensure that all remedial action necessary to protect human health and the environment is complete before deeding property to a new owner.¹² Those obligations do not end when the gates close, which is why the federal government is still spending hundreds of millions annually on bases shut down decades ago.

Can the DoD Close Bases Without BRAC?

Only within limits. Under 10 U.S.C. § 2687, the DoD cannot close any installation where at least 300 civilian employees work, or carry out a realignment that cuts civilian employment by more than 1,000 positions or 50 percent, without first notifying the Armed Services Committees and waiting at least 30 legislative days or 60 calendar days.² The notice must include an evaluation of the fiscal, economic, environmental, strategic, and operational consequences. Any major closure runs through formal congressional oversight, whether under BRAC authority or not.

Where Things Stand Now

No BRAC round has been authorized since 2005. The DoD last asked for new BRAC authority in its FY2018 budget submission, and Congress declined; the department has not requested it since.¹ The cost overruns from 2005 and resistance from affected communities have made authorization politically difficult.

The services are working within existing authorities to trim excess incrementally. The Army and Air Force both maintain “one-for-one” offset policies that pair new construction with demolition or disposal of older facilities. The FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act directed the military departments to develop strategies for demolishing underutilized facilities and authorized a pilot program letting the DoD use minor construction funding for up to five facility consolidation projects, each capped at $25 million.¹ Whether those measures can meaningfully address the scale of excess capacity a full round would tackle is an open question. DoD assessments continue to identify surplus infrastructure; the political will to act on it at scale has not returned.

1
Congress.gov. Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Process
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 10 – Section 2687
3
Congressional Research Service. Military Base Closures: Implementing the 2005 Round
4
DVIDS. President Sends BRAC Commission Report to Congress
5
Congressional Research Service. Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) – Background and Issues for Congress
6
Federal Register. Department of Defense Selection Criteria for Closing and Realigning Military Installations Inside
7
Defense Technical Information Center. COBRA – The Base Closure Cost Model
8
Government Accountability Office. Updated Costs and Savings Estimates from BRAC 2005
9
Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation
10
Congressional Research Service. Economic Development Conveyances for BRAC Properties
11
Bureau of Justice Assistance. Public Benefit Conveyance Program
12
Environmental Protection Agency. Overview of Primary Environmental Regulations Pertinent to BRAC Cleanup Plan Development