Although U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process was announced five years ago, it only recently revved up in terms of personnel relocation. As you can see on this timeline, most of the actual job relocation only began this year or hasn’t even begun yet. So we’re only starting to see BRAC’s impact, but we do know it will be significant.
The timeline shows that more than 27,000 DoD jobs will move to Maryland, with most of those centered around Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground. However, this number doesn’t take into account the thousands of additional defense contractor jobs that will also relocate to Maryland to support the defense agencies.
To accommodate this influx, the state and localities are spending millions on infrastructure improvements these workers and their families will need. The most visible aspect of these improvements is the road construction going on in Harford and Anne Arundel counties, but office buildings, schools, and hospitals are all part of the process. To counterbalance this spending, the state estimates that military facilities contributed $36 billion to the state’s economy prior to BRAC, according to this article. As BRAC progresses, this number is sure to go up.
You can learn more about BRAC by visiting this Website.