This resolution asks the leaders of the Federal Government to reform the selection and evaluation criteria used in any future military base closure actions.

Previous Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commissions allowed each of the military services to develop categories for its own bases and then evaluate and rank their bases applying criteria established by the Department of Defense and Congress. Under these single service evaluations, the concerns of the individual services often overshadowed total force considerations.

This process also seriously shortchanged Alaska's bases. Strategic location and established Army-Air Force compatibility, our bases' strongest points, were not fully recognized while their high cost in relation to other bases, our weakest point, was overemphasized.

SJR 12 calls for the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Congress to establish Joint Cross Service Groups this year to study the issues which will shape our Armed Forces in the Twenty-first Century: power projection and deployment, joint training, joint operations, and other total force considerations. These Joint Cross Service Groups will then develop new evaluation and selection criteria and procedures for future BRAC Commissions to ensure that total force and power projection factors receive increased consideration in future base closure decisions.