PRESS RELEASES
5/08/2005
Contact: Adam Terry
(202) 225-8490
More land would help Fort Polk's future
By Ana Radelat
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON -- Louisiana's congressional delegation is looking at the possibility of acquiring more land around Fort Polk to give the Army base room to grow.
Some of the land around Fort Polk is owned by the U.S. Forest Service, which has an agreement with the Army on Forest Service land that can be used for training.
The congressional delegation hopes that more land would ensure Fort Polk's long-term future.
U.S. Reps. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, and Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, say they're confident Fort Polk and Barksdale Air Force Base won't be on the shutdown list of the upcoming Base Realignment and Closure list, which is expected to be released this week.
Lt. Gen. John "Skip" Hall, a retired Air Force general who works for the Spectrum Group to lobby on behalf of Louisiana's bases, is optimistic Fort Polk and Barksdale will be spared.
Although other Army training bases that could compete with Fort Polk have larger maneuvering space, Hall said it would be difficult to shut the base down.
The reason is that it would be hard for the Army to establish another base like Fort Polk if the Pentagon needs another training base in the future.
"The range business is not a growth industry," Hall said.
Meanwhile, in Washington, lawmakers are steeling themselves for the Pentagon's imminent announcement on the next round of base overhaul with the help of a packet of information disseminated by the House Armed Services Committee.
A "BRAC Pack" distributed to lawmakers included a Congressional Research Service report that documented that the Pentagon has spent billions of dollars in environmental cleanups of previously closed bases. The report said it has cost the Pentagon more than $34 million to clean up closed bases in Louisiana -- like England Air Force Base in Alexandria -- and will cost another $16 million to finish the job.
Another CRS report warned that the Pentagon is targeting bases with only one or two missions for shutdown. It said it appeared that military research centers medical facilities, maintenance depots, and testing and evaluation facilities would be "prime candidates for consolidation."
The briefing materials also included helpful talking points for lawmakers opposed to this year's round of base closings and some for the smaller number of lawmakers -- none of them Louisianians -- who support the BRAC.
The Pentagon is set to release its latest base-closing list this week, most likely on Friday. The deadline for the announcement is May 16.
The Pentagon's list has been kept under wraps, and lawmakers and lobbyists say no one is really sure that their local bases are safe.
This round of closures and realignments will, for the first time, include moving National Guard units to other states. That could affect Louisiana guardsmen, such as those based at Camp Beauregard in Pineville.
There was some reason for optimism on Capitol Hill on Friday when it appeared that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seemed to have rolled back sharply on how many bases he planned to shutter.
Saying he had not taken into account a plan to bring home about 70,000 troops from bases in Asia and Europe, Rumsfeld told editorial writers in a telephone news conference that he will recommend closing and realigning far fewer bases than originally planned.
Louisiana has paid the Spectrum Group, a high-powered Washington law firm, $400,000 to help the state fight base closing. The local governments of Shreveport and Bossier City have paid the Spectrum Group another $187,500 to look out for Barksdale Air Force Base's welfare.
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