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CRS-3
Additional CRS reports addressing a variety of BRAC issues are also
available.7
Administrative Procedure Act Claims
The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) provides for judicial review of "final
agency action,"8 unless either of two exceptions applies: (1) when a statute precludes
judicial review or (2) when "agency action is committed to agency discretion by
law."9
Determining the Finality of Agency Action
In Dalton v. Specter, Members of Congress and other plaintiffs sought to enjoin
the Secretary of Defense (Secretary) from closing a military installation during a
previous BRAC round because of alleged substantive and procedural violations of
the Base Closure Act.'0 Specifically, plaintiffs alleged that the Secretary's report and
the Commission's report were subject to judicial review under the APA."
In Dalton, the Supreme Court held that the issuances of the Secretary's report
and the Commission' s report were not judicially reviewable actions under the APA
because they were not "final agency action[s]."12 The Court explained that "'[t]he
core question' for determining finality [of agency action under the APA is] 'whether
the agency has completed its decisionmaking process, and whether the result of that
process is one that will directly affect the parties."'3" Because the Base Closure Act
established a process under which the President takes the final action that affects
military installations (see Figure 1 on the previous page), the actions of the Secretary
7 For information regarding BRAC processes and issues, see CRS Report RL32216, Military
Base Closures: Implementing the 2005 Round, by David E. Lockwood; CRS Report
RS22061, Military Base Closures: The 2005 BRAC Commission, by Daniel H. Else and
David E. Lockwood; and CRS Report 97-305, Military Base Closures: A Historical View
from 1988 to 1995, by David E. Lockwood and George Siehl. For information regarding
issues such as property disposal and environmental cleanup, see CRS Report RS22066, Base
Realignment and Closure (BRAC): Property Transfer and Disposal, by Aaron M. Flynn;
CRS Report RS22065, Military Base Closures: Role and Costs of Environmental Cleanup,
by David M. Bearden; and CRS Report RS22147, Military Base Closure: Socioeconomic
Impacts, by Tadlock Cowan and Baird Webel.
8 5 U.S.C. 704 (2000).
9 Id. 701 (a).
Io Dalton v. Specter, 511 U.S. 462, 464, 466 (1994).
" Id. at 466; see also 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq. (2000).
2 Dalton, 511 U.S. at 469.
'" Id. at 470 (quoting Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788, 796-97 (1992)).
