Virginia lawmakers discuss base closures

Three Virginia congressmen met with Defense Department employees and the public June 20 to discuss the Pentagon’s base realignment decision to move more than 20,000 DOD workers in Northern Virginia to other forts and facilities in Virginia and Maryland.

Almost 400 people attended the 90-minute event hosted by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) that included Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.). DOD workers expressed concerns about longer commutes to work and relocation to remote bases in the region because of the May 13 decision, according to an announcement this week on Moran’s Web site.

“As you know, the recommendations include the dislocation of nearly 23,000 employees from leased office space in Northern Virginia and the infusion of 18,000 employees to Fort Belvoir,” Va., Moran said in a survey issued at the town hall meeting. “The recommendations would have serious economic, workforce and traffic implications in this region.”

Many of the DOD employees in Northern Virginia affected by base realignment and closure work in information technology and research and development. The Defense Information Systems Agency and the Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations will move from Arlington, Va., to Fort Meade, Md., and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will relocate from Arlington to the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland.

Other DOD IT organizations impacted by base closures include:

* The Army’s Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command will move from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

* The Army’s Small Computer Program Office will move from Fort Monmouth to Fort Belvoir.

* The Air Force’s Operations and Sustainment Systems Group and the Engineering and Integration Systems Squadron, formerly called the Headquarters Standard Systems Group will move from Montgomery, Ala., to the Electronic Systems Center near Boston. The center houses the Operations Support Systems Wing, which oversees procurement of the service’s business or combat support IT systems and also manages the two organizations.