GAO- Past base closings have saved $16.7 billion

WASHINGTON -- Base closings have saved the military about $16.7 billion already and are expected to generate more than $6 billion a year in future savings, government auditors said Friday.

As substantial as they are, those net savings accrued from the first four rounds of military base closings -- in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 -- even taken into account the costs of environmental cleanups, according to the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative branch.

Doubts about savings, and the potential harm to communities, have made closing bases so contentious in Congress that a stalemate over it delayed approval of a crucial defense spending bill last year even as the war on terror raged.

Ultimately, lawmakers approved another round of closings in 2005, two years later than President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wanted.

The $16.7 billion was saved through last Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2001. The Defense Department anticipates reaping another $6.6 billion a year in the future from those four rounds, which closed or realigned 451 installations, including 97 major ones.

'Estimates imprecise'

But the GAO reported the figures with reservations.

"Our reviews have found that the department's savings estimates are imprecise and should be viewed as rough approximations of the likely savings," the report said.

It asked the Pentagon to update the estimates periodically and to improve the process.

The estimates of future savings do not take into account $3.5 billion in anticipated environmental costs or $1.5 billion still to be spent to help communities, the report said, but those amounts would have a limited impact on long-term savings. Previous GAO studies also found savings.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., a base-closing supporter on the House Armed Services Committee who requested the new report, said he hopes it convinces fellow lawmakers who contested the next round.