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Late funding delays base closure projects

The Army’s long wait for money from Congress has pushed back some of the projects officials had planned to complete in fiscal 2007.

“There were 75 projects, 39 of them we couldn’t begin to start until we got the supplemental,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Wilson, assistant chief of staff at the Installation Management Command, while speaking Thursday at a meeting of the Association of the United States Army in Alexandria, Va.

“You can keep pushing things to the right, but eventually it’s going to pile up on you,” he said.

Compounding the backup of projects, he noted, are delays caused by operational requirements for the war in Iraq, such as the three-month extension for deployed units.

Those delays will have a ripple effect on the timing of moving families to posts where some brigades will re-flag when they redeploy.

“The 15-month deployment versus the 12-month deployment is causing changes in movement. The extensions and the surge have a cause and effect on our plans. That’s just something we deal with every day,” said Wilson, former commander of 7th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo.

Installation Management Command, he said, has to juggle the Army’s resources and needs with those of soldiers and their families, school schedules, jobs, permanent change-of-station moves and the effect of extended deployments.

“All of that has a stress effect on families and we’re working hard to lessen that stress,” he said.

IMCom manages $14 billion annually for 154 Army installations worldwide.

In addition to the 2007 projects, 89 projects are slated for fiscal 2008; 86 for 2009 and 83 for 2010, at which point, by law, all the projects must be complete under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure provisions.

That includes returning 50,000 soldiers and their families to the U.S., closing eight leased facilities, closing 13 installations and realigning others.