Sponsors (3)
The bill expands Opportunity Zone designations around closed military bases to spur investment, cleanup, and local job growth, but does so at the cost of foregone federal revenue and with the risk that benefits shift away from the nation's most distressed communities and raise local housing costs.
State and local communities around closed BRAC military bases can have more tracts designated as Opportunity Zones, making it easier to attract private investment and redevelopment to former DoD sites.
Residents and small businesses near closed bases can see new jobs and higher property values as former installations are redeveloped and reutilized.
Local communities and states can use targeted federal tax incentives to fund cleanup and reuse of contaminated or underused military land, potentially improving local infrastructure and public services.
Low-income and distressed communities nationwide could lose out if investment is redirected to non–low-income tracts around former bases instead of the most distressed areas the Opportunity Zone program was meant to serve.
Taxpayers broadly bear reduced federal revenue because expanding Opportunity Zone tax benefits to additional tracts lowers tax receipts.
Renters and existing lower-income residents near redeveloped bases may face accelerated gentrification and rising housing costs as a result of redevelopment activity.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows census tracts containing portions of BRAC-closed military installations to be designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones, while not treating them as low‑income if they fail standard tests and counting them toward State designation caps.
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
Makes census tracts that include any part of a former Department of Defense installation closed in a BRAC round explicitly eligible to be designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones. It also clarifies that such tracts are not automatically treated as low-income communities if they fail to meet existing low-income criteria, and allows States to count those nominated tracts against their designation caps. The change amends the Internal Revenue Code provision governing Opportunity Zones and applies to designations made after the law is enacted. The goal is to encourage private investment and reuse of former military bases by making them explicitly qualify for Opportunity Zone treatment while preserving rules about low-income community status and state designation limits.