Summary

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the two Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) accounts. GAO noted that: (1) the BRAC I account may have as much as $200 million in unobligated funds remaining at the end of fiscal year 1995; (2) the Department of Defense may have allocated more BRAC I funds for environmental cleanups than are currently needed; (3) about $51.4 million of BRAC I funds have been undistributed or programmed for cancelled projects; (4) BRAC I funds are restricted to paying expenses for BRAC I base closures and are thus statutorily unavailable for higher priority needs in subsequent BRAC rounds; and (5) Congress could transfer BRAC I funds into the BRAC II account without adversely affecting BRAC I closures, since BRAC II funds can be used for future BRAC I environmental restoration, property management, and property disposal needs.