The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a defense authorization bill that includes language advanced by Congressmen Jim Moran and Gerry Connolly that would make it easier for DoD to allocate funds to improve roads and expand transit outside the boundaries of military facilities including Fort Belvoir, the Engineering Proving Ground, and Quantico Marine Base in Northern Virginia.  More than 20,000 new employees will be moving to the three sites as a result of BRAC.

Current DoD regulations, unchanged since 1978, prohibit DoD from spending funds off base unless it can be shown that base changes will result in doubling of vehicular traffic around the facility.  Densely populated areas like Northern Virginia and the entire National Capital Region with already-congested roads are unable to qualify for DoD funding due to the “doubling of traffic” requirement.

The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1540) by a vote of 322-96.  It now moves to the Senate for consideration.

“This is an important bipartisan victory in our efforts to improve transportation infrastructure around Fort Belvoir to mitigate the impact of the thousands of new employees coming to the base due to BRAC,” Connolly said.  “Our language included in this House-passed bill makes a key change in DoD regulations that allows DoD to use transportation improvement funding off-base to make desperately needed road and transit improvements.”  Without this language DoD cannot make improvements outside the base without a determination that traffic would double due to base expansion.  That’s tough to do.  How do you double gridlock?”

“The BRAC moves in Northern Virginia have caused a six-year headache,” said Moran. “Transportation issues at Ft. Belvoir and the Mark Center serve as glaring examples of the flaws in the current BRAC process. The reforms included in the NDAA will allow the DoD to learn from the costly mistakes of BRAC 2005.”

Last July, Connolly, Moran, and Senator Mark Warner wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging him to reevaluate the DoD regulations, noting that off-site transportation improvements at the three Northern Virginia military facilities are nowhere close to being ready due to lack of funds.  About $1.4 billion in identified off-site priorities are not funded.

Section 2804 of the bill improves the Defense Access Roads (DAR) program, which distributes funding for defense-related road improvements, by eliminating a requirement that traffic must double on surrounding roads before funds are delivered. It further expands the program to fund transit, pedestrian, and bicycle infrastructure in addition to roads. The provision retroactively applies the change to BRAC 2005 recommendations.

Another important provision added by the two congressmen, section 2706,reforms the BRAC commission’s decision-making process by mandating that future commissions consider the capacity of existing transportation surrounding receiving installations and take into account the cost of road improvements. Additionally, the Secretary of Defense will be required to consult with the Federal Highway Administration if proposed relocations will have a significant impact on existing transportation infrastructure.