War woven into domestic economy
Talk is already beginning about another round of military base closings, and 2015 is being mentioned as the dreaded date.
Few words cause as much anxiety on Capitol Hill as “Base Realignment and Closure Commission,” the largely apolitical entity that decides which bases and other installations no longer are needed or should be combined.
In five previous rounds, more than 800 military facilities have been shuttered or relocated. Because of the economic consequences such closures can have on communities, localities mount full-bore campaigns to demonstrate that their bases are indispensable.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., helped launch the latest case of the base-closing willies, when in late February he advised his home state and the rest of New England to ramp up their strategy to survive a sixth round in 2015 – even though Congress hasn’t yet authorized the creation of another commission. Other regions with base-dependent economies are stirring as well.
Given the certain changes ahead in the force structure after the end of the Iraq and Afghan-istan wars, as well as the nation’s need to slash future spending, analysts say the odds are enormous that more closings lie ahead.
n n n n n
The White House has decided to take a page from the base-closing concept by setting up an independent board to cut through the politics and bureaucracy as it embarks on selling government property no longer needed.
Office of Management and Budget official Jeffrey Zients announced this past week that the “Civilian Property Realignment Board” will be created to expedite the sale or other disposal of roughly 14,000 unneeded government-owned buildings and other structures, and thousands more underused properties such as warehouses.
In all, the White House figures, taxpayers will save $15 billion over the first three years by unloading the properties.
Like the base-closing commission, the property board will draw up a list of the specific buildings it deems necessary to sell or consolidate, and Congress will be able to vote up or down on the entire proposal, rather than on the properties one by one.
Zients said details on the properties that could be put on the block will be made public next month.
n n n n n
Long-haul truckers and bus drivers are facing off – again – with federal highway safety officials over a new proposal to track how many hours drivers are putting in behind the wheel.
To combat the dangers wrought by sleep-deprived drivers, the federal government has imposed strict rules to ensure sufficient downtime for commercial vehicle operators. Currently, the drivers keep paper records to document their hours.
But now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a proposal that interstate cargo- and people-haulers install electronic recorders to automatically monitor their working hours. The agency said the new method would eliminate what some truckers have called onerous paperwork.
But many trucking and bus companies, along with their drivers, are honking mad at the proposal, which they say would be prohibitively costly, an improper intrusion by government and useless for recording time spent loading or unloading rigs.
Meanwhile, the American Trucking Association is calling on Congress to hold a hearing on the agency’s “hours-of-service” rules.
E-mail SHNS correspondent Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl@shns.com.