[CPEO-IRF] Northeast-Midwest - "The Nation's Unguarded Region"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Below is the official summary of the Northeast-Midwest Institute's April
2005 Updated Summary Report on "Base Closings and Military Presence in
the Northeast-Midwest: The Nation's Unguarded Region." For the entire
public version of the report, go to 
http://www.nemw.org/reports.htm#fedspending.

It seems that everyone is trying to come up with a way to argue that
they have been or will be hurt most by base closures. I find the
argument that the Northeast-Midwest region is unguarded as far-fetched,
and I believe that the Pentagon planners responsible for recommending
base closures and realignments will too. - LS

***

Summary: The Regional Imbalance in the Nation?s Military Presence

The Northeast and Midwest stand out as the nation?s least guarded
regions at a time when military concerns increasingly focus on homeland
defense and as the U.S. Defense Department prepares to significantly
reduce its installations on home soil. The 18 northeastern and
midwestern states, which hold about 40 percent of the nation?s
population, account for only just more than 10 percent of the active
duty military personnel located in the country. The region contains
densely populated metropolitan areas, critical transportation and
telecommunications infrastructure, key border crossings and ports for
international trade, and the resources that produce more than 40 percent
of the nation?s annual economic output ? yet together the 18 states of
the Northeast-Midwest contain fewer active duty military personnel than
Texas alone, or the state of California.

That regional imbalance in the military's national presence could grow
worse if the burden for defense cutbacks in 2005 and beyond
disproportionately falls on the Northeast-Midwest, as it has in past.
>From 1987 to 2002, when the Defense Department carried out four rounds
of base closings and realignments, the number of active duty military
personnel fell by 41 percent in the Northeast-Midwest, compared to 21
percent for the South and West. For reserve and National Guard forces,
the region experienced a 37 percent drop, compared to 22 percent for the
rest of the country. For civilian Defense Department employees, the
decline in the Northeast-Midwest was 41 percent, compared to 34 percent elsewhere.

In May 2005, the Department of Defense will release recommendations for
base closings and realignments designed to reduce redundancies, trim
excess physical capacity, and yield major cost savings. The Defense
Department estimates that its current 276 major U.S. installations
exceed its infrastructure needs by 24 percent, using the 1989 ratio of
personnel to physical plant. Based on the experience of base realignment
and closure (BRAC) rounds in 1993 and 1995, the Defense Department
anticipates that BRAC 2005 will yield a one-time savings of $3 billion
to $5 billion by 2011 and then reoccurring, annual savings of $5 billion
to $8 billion thereafter. Closings and realignments will affect all
types of defense facilities, not just military bases.

This reduction in infrastructure costs could free up funds not only for
Defense Department priorities but also for tax cuts or spending by other
federal agencies. Very few Northeast-Midwest states benefit
disproportionately from defense spending. The Northeast-Midwest region,
which is estimated to contribute 44 percent of the federal taxes,
accounts for just 25 percent of Defense Department spending in the
United States, compared to 41 percent of the U.S. spending by all other
federal agencies, according to fiscal 2003 data. Regional inequities in
overall defense spending significantly and adversely affect the return
on federal tax dollar for many northeastern and midwestern states.

The forthcoming base realignments and closings must be made in a way
that recognizes regional inequities in defense capabilities and
spending, addresses homeland defense concerns, and acknowledges that the
military's presence is important to states and regions in this age of
unconventional threats, especially terrorism. When it comes to homeland
security, the military has only a minor presence in the vital
Northeast-Midwest region, and, as the U.S. General Accounting Office has
noted, the Defense Department's ?force structure is not well tailored to
perform domestic military missions.? While it would make little sense to
distribute military personnel throughout the county simply for the sake
of geographical balance, it also would make little sense to further
reduce the already small share of military personnel in the vulnerable
Northeast-Midwest. 

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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