00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21                                                                                         
01 Relating to new evaluation and selection criteria for military base realignment and                                     
02 closure actions.                                                                                                        
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
04  WHEREAS the Secretary of the United States Department of Defense has called for                                      
05 the reestablishment of a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission to conduct two                                  
06 new rounds of military base closures beginning in 2001; and                                                             
07  WHEREAS, under the process established for the BRAC Commissions in 1991, 1993,                                       
08 and 1995, each of the armed services developed categories for its own bases and evaluated                               
09 and ranked each of its bases within those categories by applying criteria established by the                            
10 United States Department of Defense and the Congress; and                                                               
11  WHEREAS these single-service evaluations severely restricted the opportunity to                                      
12 consider the effect of a base's closure on the operational readiness of the United States                               
13 Department of Defense's total force; and                                                                                
14  WHEREAS the shortcomings of this single-service approach were recognized by the                                      

01 1993 BRAC Commission that recommended that the United States Department of Defense                                      
02 develop procedures for considering potential joint or common activities among the services                              
03 in several training and support areas; and                                                                              
04  WHEREAS this recommendation led to the creation in 1994 of Joint Cross-Service                                       
05 Groups that worked with the services in the five functional areas of depot maintenance,                                 
06 military medical treatment facilities, test and evaluation, undergraduate pilot training, and                           
07 laboratories, in preparation for the 1995 BRAC round; and                                                               
08  WHEREAS the strategic challenges now facing the United States as we enter the new                                    
09 century may require an even greater emphasis on creating and fielding a fully integrated total                          
10 force capable of projecting our nation's military power around the world from bases within                              
11 our country's borders; and                                                                                              
12  WHEREAS this military force structure should be supported by a military base                                         
13 structure that is focused on strategic mobility, joint operations, and joint training                                   
14 considerations in addition to individual service considerations;                                                        
15  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the                                           
16 President of the United States, the United States Congress, and the Secretary of the United                             
17 States Department of Defense to establish new Joint Cross-Service Groups this year to study                             
18 issues of power projection and deployment, joint training, joint operations, and other total                            
19 force considerations; and be it                                                                                         
20  FURTHER RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that these Joint Cross-                                             
21 Service Groups then be directed to develop new evaluation and selection criteria and                                    
22 procedures based on their findings to be incorporated into any future base realignment and                              
23 closure proceedings to ensure that total force and power projection factors are major military                          
24 value considerations in base structure decisions.                                                                       
25  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                              
26 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
27 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Strom Thurmond, President Pro Tem of the U.S. Senate;                                 
28 the Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable                            
29 William S. Cohen, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense; and to the Honorable Ted                                 
30 Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young,                                  
31 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.