BRAC, overseas rebasing, and Army modularity are all expected to generate significant personnel movements among numerous bases within the United States and from certain overseas locations back to the United States. Four primary organizations—the Army’s Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, OEA, and the President’s Economic Adjustment Committee—are responsible for planning, managing construction, and assisting local communities affected by these moves. First, DOD has undergone four BRAC rounds since 1988 and is implementing its fifth round, known as BRAC 2005, which was authorized by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002. The BRAC Commission recommendations were accepted by the President and Congress and became effective on November 9, 2005. In accordance with BRAC statutory authority, DOD must complete closures and realignments by September 15, 2011. BRAC 2005’s key goals were to (1) transform DOD by more closely aligning its infrastructure with defense strategy, (2) enhance joint operations, and (3) reduce excess infrastructure and produce savings. Traditionally, DOD relied on BRAC primarily to reduce excess property and save money since property that has been disposed of is no longer maintained by DOD. Conversely, due in part to the addition of the transformation and joint operations goals to BRAC 2005, this round led to more than twice the number of actions in all previous rounds combined, 837 distinct actions in all. These BRAC actions incorporate many of the more than 50,000 Army personnel expected to return from overseas locations to the United States as part of DOD’s overseas rebasing initiative discussed below. Second, in August 2004, the President announced plans for sweeping changes to the number and locations of DOD’s overseas-based facilities. Known as the Global Defense Posture Realignment, DOD plans to realign its overseas basing structure over a 6- to 8-year period from the legacy Cold War posture to one that would more effectively support current allies and strategies and address emerging threats. Under the overseas rebasing effort, the 50,000 Army personnel plus another 20,000 other defense personnel and about 100,000 family members are to relocate from overseas locations—primarily in Europe and Korea—to bases in the United States. Although some of these personnel have already relocated, many were still overseas at the time of our review. Army plans call for overseas relocations to the United States to be completed prior to September 15, 2011. Third, similar to BRAC and overseas rebasing actions, implementation of Army force modularity will add to the personnel growth at some bases. The Army’s modular transformation has been referred to as the largest Army reorganization in 50 years and affects the active Army, Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Reserve. The foundation for the modular force is the creation of brigade combat teams that while somewhat smaller than existing brigades, are expected to be more agile and deployable and better able to meet combatant commander requirements. Successful implementation of this initiative requires the movement of personnel across various units, new facilities and equipment, a different mix of skills and occupational specialties, and significant changes in doctrine and training. The Army began the modularity initiative in 2004 and expects to finish most associated reorganizations by 2011, but expects that some reorganizations will occur after 2011. As a result of the three initiatives and certain other restationing moves, the Army expects a net gain of about 154,000 personnel at its domestic gaining bases from fiscal years 2006 through fiscal year 2011. These gains include active and reserve soldiers, military students and trainees, civilians, and mission contractors but do not include family members and non-mission- related contractors. Our analysis of March 2007 Army data on personnel restationing actions indicates that 18 domestic installations, as shown in table 1, are likely to experience a net gain of at least 2,000 military and civilian personnel for fiscal years 2006 through 2011 because of BRAC 2005, overseas rebasing, modularity, and other miscellaneous restationing actions. Personnel gains at individual locations are projected to range from 7 percent to 111 percent. As also shown in table 1, while the overall net gain in personnel at these installations averages 31 percent, Forts Belvoir, Bliss, Lee, and Riley are expected to experience a 53 percent or more growth rate. The expected personnel net gains at these 18 installations account for nearly 90 percent of the total expected personnel net gains across all Army domestic installations through 2011. Figure 1 shows the locations of the 18 installations. Accommodating the expected large increase of personnel at these 18 Army locations over the next several years requires the expenditure of significant military construction funds for required facilities. Although the Army also will have procurement, operations and maintenance, and other associated cost increases at these bases because of the personnel increases, the scope of this report focuses on military construction funding. Our analysis of DOD data, as shown in table 2, indicates that DOD is planning to spend over $17 billion to construct facilities at these locations through the fiscal year 2011 time frame. Also shown in table 2, the overwhelming majority, over 80 percent, of the planned construction expenditures at these Army installations are attributable to BRAC, overseas rebasing, and modularity actions. Moreover, as shown in the table, other military services or defense agencies and activities are planning to expend about $4.6 billion for constructing BRAC facilities they expect to use at these Army installations. For example, several defense agencies are expecting to spend more than $2.6 billion in facility construction at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, while the Air Force plans to spend in excess of $600 million for facilities to house medical training personnel and students at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The following four organizations are to manage personnel moves associated with BRAC, overseas rebasing, or Army modularity and to assist local communities affected by the movements: The Army’s Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management provides policy guidance and program management on all matters relating to the management and funding of Army installations worldwide and to ensure the availability of installation services and facilities. To accomplish its mission, the office coordinates with other key Army headquarters organizations, including the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans and the Army Budget Office, to respond to operational requirements and resource availability in providing for installation infrastructure. To assist in this role, the Installation Management Command provides needed installation services and facilities, including construction, family care, food management, environmental programs, well-being, logistics, public works, and installation funding to support readiness and mission execution. The Army Corps of Engineers is the Army’s construction agent and is charged with contracting for infrastructure construction for the Army. The Corps also manages the construction process, including supervision and inspection as facilities construction progresses. It also functions as the construction agent for selected Air Force construction projects and fulfills a role as an agent for a civil works construction program involving flood control, water supply, hydroelectric power generation, navigation, recreation, wetlands regulation, and resource protection. OEA is a field activity within the Office of the Secretary of Defense that assists states and communities by providing technical and financial assistance in planning and carrying out adjustment strategies in response to defense actions. Much of that assistance in the past had been directed toward communities that lost military and civilian personnel because of the closure or major realignment of a base. Conversely, because the 2005 BRAC round, overseas rebasing, and Army modularity have created significant growth at many bases, OEA has assisted affected communities with growth planning. The President’s Economic Adjustment Committee was established under Executive Order 12788 and comprises 22 federal agencies that are to facilitate the organization, planning, and execution of community-based defense adjustment strategies. The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Installations and Environment) chairs the committee, and the Secretaries of Labor and Commerce serve as Vice Chairmen. The Committee Chair has testified that the committee will likely conduct team visits to better understand local community adjustment challenges and to more capably address potential needs for federal assistance. The Army has developed plans to accommodate growth of about 154,000 personnel at its domestic bases as a result of BRAC 2005, overseas rebasing, and force modularity actions, but it faces several complex challenges to the implementation of those plans and risks late provision of needed infrastructure to adequately support arriving personnel. First, Army plans are still evolving, and officials at the gaining bases we visited did not agree with Army headquarters on personnel movements at their bases. Second, the synchronization of personnel movements across installations with the planned infrastructure construction is difficult because any unforeseen delays or disruptions in providing for necessary facilities can adversely affect synchronization plans. Third, competing resource demands could lead to redirection of resources that would have been used for infrastructure improvements to other priorities, as has happened in the past. Fourth, the Army Corps of Engineers may be at risk of not finishing all needed infrastructure projects within new cost and timeline goals because of the unprecedented volume of required construction. Expected personnel movement numbers differ between Army headquarters and the bases where these people will move, thus affecting whether adequate infrastructure will be in place when personnel arrive. As of March 2007, the nine gaining bases we visited were expecting different numbers of personnel arrivals and departures than those generated by the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans. Table 3 provides examples of these variances at six of these bases, five of which are planning for more personnel movement than Army headquarters’ plans while one base expects slightly less. While the other three bases we visited had personnel movement numbers that also differed from the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans’ numbers, the data were not as easily comparable as those presented in table 3. The examples in table 3 are not necessarily representative of all Army growth locations and all categories of arriving personnel, but they nonetheless could lead to unnecessary infrastructure improvements on some bases and inadequate improvements on others.