S.Amdt. 695

1. Adds Sec. 2904. (a) Congress makes the following findings: on page 94, between lines 10 and 11

   Adds a sectionPrinted page

   Inserted: Sec. 2904. (a) Congress makes the following findings:

   Inserted: (1) Congress authorized the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-107) as the only fair and objective way for the Department of Defense to reduce excess military base infrastructure and to obtain savings from these reductions.

   Inserted: (2) In order to ensure a fair and objective process, the President was required to present to Congress a list of bases to be closed or realigned, as determined by the BRAC Commission, in a totality without any changes or alterations.

   Inserted: (3) The President submitted to Congress the decisions of the BRAC Commission under the 2005 round of defense base closure and realignment on September 15, 2005, two and a half years after the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

   Inserted: (4) As part of the BRAC process, the Secretary of Defense was required by law to assess the probable threats to national security and, as part of such assessment, determine the potential, prudent, surge requirements to meet those threats.

   Inserted: (5) The Department of Defense and the BRAC Commission were required by law to determine whether each decision accounted for the ability to accommodate contingency, mobilization, surge, and future total force requirements at both existing and potential receiving locations to support operations and training.

   Inserted: (6) Congress took no action to disapprove the decisions of the Commission, thus allowing the totality of the 2005 round of defense base closure and realignment to become law on November 20, 2005.

   Inserted: (7) Contained within the totality of the 2005 BRAC decisions was the realignment of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., which would result in the closure of the main post and the relocation of--

   Inserted: (A) all tertiary (sub-specialty and complex care) medical services, Legal Medicine, and a Pathology Program Management Office to National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland;

   Inserted: (B) all non-tertiary (primary and specialty) patient care functions to a new community hospital at Fort Belvoir, Virginia;

   Inserted: (C) the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, DNA Registry, and Accident Investigation to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware; and

   Inserted: (D) the Combat Casualty Care Research sub-function and the enlisted histology technician training to Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

   Show 10 more inserted paragraphsShow less

   Inserted: (8) The decision to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center is estimated to save the Department of Defense over $170,000,000 annually after 2011.

   Inserted: (9) The cost to maintain and renovate current facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in the national capitol region was estimated by the Department of the Army to exceed $13,000,000,000 over the next 13 years.

   Inserted: (10) A delay in the closure or realignment of a military installation would cause further disruption and uncertainty for the workforce supporting the installation and the local community surrounding the installation until the action is complete.

   Inserted: (11) The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (part A of title XXIX of Public Law 101-510; 10 U.S.C. 2687 note) requires the Secretary of Defense to complete all such closures and realignments no later than September 15, 2011, in order minimize to the negative impact on military operations and local communities by establishing clear, specific goals for the realignment and closure activities.

   Inserted: (12) The inadequate conditions and processes recently identified at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are, in part, due to antiquated facilities spread over a 113-acre campus, which was not initially designed for processes necessitated by current military operations.

   Inserted: (13) The BRAC decision will allow the Department of Defense to transform legacy medical facilities into a premier, modern, state-of-the-art joint operational medical facility that will combine the best military practitioners, medical practices, and medical research efforts from both the Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy under one roof working side-by-side for wounded servicemembers.

   Inserted: (14) The acceleration of the construction at the receiving locations from the closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center will allow for a quicker transition of functions and patient services to newer, more modern facilities, significantly improving the capability to care for our Nation's wounded service members.

   Inserted: (15) Any action by Congress to delay or reverse the BRAC decision to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center will result in an unprecedented disruption to the BRAC process and introduce a level of uncertainty in every other BRAC decision, which could paralyze the efforts of the military and local communities to faithfully carry out the decisions made under the 2005 round of defense base closure and realignment.

   Inserted: (b) It is the sense of Congress that the realignment of functions from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, as prescribed under the 2005 round of defense base closure and realignment, should be accelerated to minimize the uncertainty faced by the dedicated professionals serving at the Center, and to ensure the quickest possible completion of facilities and the immediate transfer of functions from the Center.

   Inserted: (c) There are authorized to be appropriated $123,000,000 for an additional amount to be deposited into the Department of Defense Base Closure Account 2005 established under section 2906A(a)(1) of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (part A of title XXIX of Public Law 101-510; 10 U.S.C. 2687 note) for the purpose of accelerating construction activities related to the closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Any funds so appropriated shall remain available until expended.

   Original wording

   On page 94, between lines 10 and 11, insert the following:

Read automatically from the Congressional Record. Check the original before relying on it.

As printed