WIth Presidential approval of the BRAC report, it’s all over but the shouting & Ellsworth survived the process.
President Bush on Thursday endorsed a plan for closing 22 major military bases and reconfiguring 33 others, leaving their fate to Congress.
Bush had until Sept. 23 to either accept the entire report from an independent commission and send it to Congress, or return it to the commission for further work. The report will become final in 45 days unless Congress acts to reject it in full. In previous rounds, lawmakers never have rejected reports, meaning communities probably have little hope of a reprieve for their bases.
Likewise, bases left off the BRAC closure list, have little to fear at this point. Aside from the economics of the situation, the Chief believes that the strategic and military factors were the only ones that should have been significant in the final decisions. In the cases of Ellsworth, and the Naval bases in Maine and Connecticut at least, the Chief had NO doubt that this was the case, as did the commissioners, resulting in the positive outcome for South Dakota.