Sponsors (3)
The bill expands Opportunity Zone designations to spur investment, cleanup, and redevelopment of former military sites, but does so at the cost of reduced federal revenue and a real risk that investment will bypass the neediest communities and drive local gentrification.
State governments and local communities: Allowing additional tracts around closed BRAC bases to be designated as Opportunity Zones will attract private investment and redevelopment to former military sites, potentially creating jobs and raising property values.
Local communities and state governments: Targeted federal tax incentives can support cleanup and reuse of contaminated or underused military land, improving local infrastructure, environmental conditions, and public services.
Low-income individuals and distressed communities: Expanding Opportunity Zone designations to non–low-income tracts can divert private investment away from the poorest neighborhoods the program was intended to help.
Taxpayers nationwide: Extending Opportunity Zone tax benefits to additional tracts reduces federal tax revenue, effectively shifting costs onto taxpayers or other federal priorities.
Renters and low-income residents near former bases: Redevelopment and rising property values could accelerate gentrification and raise housing costs, displacing existing residents.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows census tracts overlapping BRAC-closed military installations to be designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones and counts them against State designation caps, even if not low-income.
Makes census tracts that include any portion of a former Department of Defense installation closed through a BRAC round explicitly eligible to be designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones, even if they do not meet the usual low‑income community test. It also clarifies that such tracts are not treated as low‑income for other purposes when they fail existing criteria and requires that nominated BRAC tracts count against a State's cap on the number of designations. The change is limited to amending the Internal Revenue Code's Qualified Opportunity Zone rules and applies to opportunity zone designations made after the law takes effect.
Official title: Amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit certain population census tracts containing former military installations to be designated as qualified opportunity zones.
Introduced May 20, 2026 by David Harold McCormick · Last progress May 20, 2026