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Washington, D.C., May 10th – Reps. Jim Moran (D-VA) and Tom Davis (R-VA) have successfully included language in the FY’08 Defense Authorization Bill mandating that the General Services Administration (GSA) enter into an agreement transferring their Franconia warehouse in Springfield to the Army. The bill is expected to be considered by the House next week.
“The 23,000 civilian military employees scheduled to be relocated to Ft. Belvoir over the next four years represent a transportation nightmare for local commuters,” said Moran. “With this provision, the Army would be able to shift nearly a quarter of their relocated employees to a Metro accessible location. Literally, thousands more cars would be kept off area roads.”
The Moran-Davis language forces the GSA and the Secretary of the Army to enter into a land exchange of the GSA’s Franconia Warehouse property no later than September 30, 2008. The exchange will consider the fair market value of the land under exchange and relocation of GSA tenants, while also ensuring the Army can spread the impact of the BRAC realignment across multiple locations. Without the Moran-Davis language, nearly all of the 23,000 employees would be located on a single site – the Engineer Proving Grounds – which currently has no access to Metro.
“We have to make the most of the resources we have if BRAC is going to be successful,” said Davis. “Using the current GSA property for BRAC related functions takes advantage of the existing Metro and VRE facilities in Springfield; it also reduces pressure on the Engineering Proving Ground and Fairfax County Parkway. There is a lot left to do, but this is an important step.”
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) dictated that over 23,000 Department of Defense (DoD) personnel – a workforce nearly equivalent to that of the Pentagon -- be relocated to Ft. Belvoir by September 15, 2011. Reps. Moran and Davis, in conjunction with Virginia’s Senators, have been working to mitigate the effects of the BRAC decision, focusing on slowing the process of relocating workers to Ft. Belvoir until transportation solutions are offered by the military. Making the GSA Warehouse available to the Army is a key piece in that effort.
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