On May 13, 2005, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced recommendations to close or realign a number of domestic U.S. military bases in order to consolidate forces and save funds. The announcement occurred as a step in the 2005 round of the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process, as authorized by Congress in 2001. Specifically, DOD recommended closures and realignments that the agency estimated would eliminate approximately 18,000 civilian support positions. In addition, the DOD recommendations contemplated significant restructuring and consolidation of support functions with potential implications for affected civilian employees. Under the BRAC framework, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld transmitted the recommendations to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (commonly referred to as the BRAC Commission) for its review and recommendations. After its review process, on September 8, 2005, the BRAC Commission transmitted its recommendations in a report to President George W. Bush. The BRAC Commission accepted a majority of DOD's recommendations for closure and realignment, rejected or modified some DOD recommendations, and made several recommendations on its own initiative. Appendix O of the BRAC Commission's report included information about "employment impact by economic areas and states," including, among other things, net direct job changes (i.e., increases and decreases for each state and area) for military, civilian, and contractor personnel. Overall, the data in Appendix O indicated a net decrease of 15,874 federal civilian jobs across all states and areas, corresponding to the BRAC Commission's recommendations. Maryland was listed with the largest increase in net civilian jobs (7,773) among all states, and Virginia was listed with the largest decrease (-10,838). (See Appendix of this report for a table showing net job changes for each state, territory, and the District of Columbia. ) On September 15, 2005, the President, who could accept or reject the BRAC Commission's recommendations only in their entirety, approved the commission's recommendations and transmitted them to Congress. On October 27, 2005, Congress rejected H.J.Res. 65 , a resolution of disapproval of the BRAC Commission's recommendations. The recommendations took effect on November 9, 2005. In late 2005, DOD issued instructions to the military departments and defense agencies to create a "Business Plan" for each of the recommendations drafted by the commission and approved by the President. DOD reportedly planned to develop "general plans" early in 2006 to implement the BRAC Commission's recommendations, with over 240 specific implementation plans being developed thereafter at "their own pace, their own schedule and their own cost structure." Barring future congressional action, DOD is required to implement the recommendations by 2011. Congress did not enact a Military Construction Appropriations Act for FY2007. P.L. 110-5 , the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution for FY2007, provides an appropriation of nearly $2.5 billion for BRAC. This amount is $3.1 billion less than the President requested. H.R. 1591 , emergency supplemental appropriations for FY2007, as passed by the House and the Senate, includes the $3.1 billion for the 2005 Department of Defense Base Closure Account. Unless the President vetoes the legislation, BRAC would be fully funded. According to DOD, "[w]hen implementing decisions during the past four BRAC rounds, the Department worked diligently to assist its military and civilian personnel in transition ... [and] attempted to minimize involuntary separations of Defense civilians at closing or realigning installations through a variety of placement, retirement, and federal retraining programs." As evidence of the success of these programs, DOD also stated that "[e]ven though the Department's civilian workforce has been reduced by 40 percent since the first BRAC rounds began in 1988, less than 10 percent of the affected employees were involuntarily separated." For the current round, DOD stated: One of the Department's challenges at installations subject to BRAC decisions is the fair and effective management of human resources. The closure of installations with the potential for separating a large number of civilian employees presents major challenges to commanders and human resource personnel. While these installations will still have missions to accomplish, the employees will be stressed about their careers and employment security. In this atmosphere, productivity will suffer and the employees' overall quality of life may diminish. The Department has a number of mitigating placement, transition, and worker assistance programs to draw from.... In order to assist with efforts to mitigate the impact of job separations (e.g., through reduction in force) and otherwise help civilian employees with transitions, DOD established a "BRAC Transition" website and created a brochure to assist civil service employees (appropriated fund employees) and nonappropriated fund (NAF) employees. The website outlines several available resources, including job placement programs, separation incentives, and various benefit and entitlement programs, including some from other agencies. This report focuses on DOD civil service (appropriated fund) employees. When BRAC closures and realignments are implemented, there will likely be several implications and options for affected DOD civil service employees. The sections below briefly identify a number of them. As noted in DOD's BRAC report, however, "[c]oncerns about the implementation of BRAC decisions are numerous and based on very installation-specific circumstances. For many of these concerns, sufficient information may be available only after BRAC decisions are finalized and installation-specific implementation plans are developed." Therefore, it appears that detailed information about these implications or options will emerge over time. Perhaps the most severe potential effect of BRAC on affected employees could be a reduction in force (RIF). Under delegated authority from the Secretary of Defense, RIF actions are approved by certain senior DOD officials. Redelegation of the approval authority to the lowest practical level is authorized when fewer than 50 employees are involuntarily separated through RIF, or when the RIF occurs as a result of BRAC. RIFs within DOD may not commence until 45 days after Congress has received the appropriate information about the action. Each employee affected by a RIF must receive a specific written notice of at least 60 full days (not counting notice delivery dates and effective dates) before the action becomes effective. The employee's labor representative is notified at the same time. When 50 or more employees in a competitive area are being separated, the state dislocated worker unit(s), chief elected official(s) of local government(s) where the separations will occur, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must be notified in writing. Except in specific situations, RIF or other termination notices cannot be issued or made effective between December 15 and January 3. DOD's final regulations to implement the RIF provisions of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS, described in a later section), which became effective on November 28, 2005, are different from the RIF rules that apply to other civilian employees government-wide. Under the government-wide regulations, an employee's retention standing in a RIF is based, in descending order, on tenure, veterans' preference, length of service, and performance (5 CFR §351.501(a)). Were a RIF to occur after the NSPS rules are fully implemented, in an installation covered by the NSPS, performance would precede length of service in determining retention standing (5 CFR §9901.607(a)). Under both the government-wide and NSPS regulations, a higher-standing employee could displace a lower-standing employee on the same retention list. DOD is to address changes to the RIF process included in the NSPS regulations to ensure that the rules are applied consistently across DOD components. An employee may appeal the RIF action to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) not later than 30 days after the RIF effective date. An employee in a bargaining unit covered by a negotiated grievance procedure that does not exclude RIF must use the negotiated grievance procedure. The employee may not appeal the RIF action to MSPB unless the employee alleges the action was based upon discrimination. The collective bargaining agreement covers the time limits for filing a grievance under a negotiated grievance procedure. Several authorities (i.e., VERA and VSIP, described below) are intended to reduce the number of involuntary separations. According to DOD, if an employee's organization is realigned to another geographic location, the employee might or might not be offered the opportunity to move with the work. An employee's right of assignment depends on whether the employee's organization is being moved due to a "transfer of function." As DOD explains, a transfer of function "occurs when a function ceases in one location and is moved to one or more other locations that are not performing that specific type of work." In such a case, non-temporary employees would have the right to move with their work if the alternative at the losing organization were separation or demotion due to a RIF. If a realignment were not a transfer of function, an employee would not have the right to accompany the function to the new location. In such a case, DOD might give employees the opportunity to volunteer to relocate with the organization. If, however, such an employee does not volunteer, or volunteers but is not selected, the employee would be subject to a resulting RIF action and might be eligible for transition assistance. Employees who are at least 50 years of age with at least 20 years of creditable service (or 25 years of service at any age) may be eligible for early retirement. These requirements apply to individuals covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Annuities for CSRS employees are reduced by 2% a year for each year the retiree is under age 55.