First it was Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. Then came the drafters of President Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget request. Now it’s an ideologically diverse roster of think tank defense specialists urging a long-reluctant Congress to grab some savings by reviving the dreaded Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC).

Last week, the House and Senate Armed Services panels received a letter from 45 notables — among them Gordon Adams of the Stimson Center, Michèle Flournoy of the Center for a New American Security, Derek Chollet of the German Marshall Fund, Brandon Arnold of the National Taxpayers Union, William Hartung of the Center for International Policy, Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution and Christopher Preble of the Cato Institute.

“Today, the first four BRAC rounds together are producing annual recurring savings of around $7 billion,” they wrote. “Even the much-criticized 2005 BRAC — which focused mostly on realignment of functions at existing facilities, and closed far fewer bases than in preceding rounds — is producing nearly $5 billion in annual savings.”

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