It’s now up to President Bush to decide whether to accept the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s proposal for closing and reorganizing bases.

He may accept the proposals or reject the plan altogether or send it back for more work.

The nine-member commission forwarded its final report to the president late Thursday.

Commissioners signed off on roughly 86 percent of the Pentagon's money-saving recommendations, which is on par with previous years.

More than 800 Army, Navy and Air Force facilities across the country would shrink, close or in some cases grow under the commission-amended proposal.

After Congress receives the report from the president, lawmakers have 45 days to object formally.

If they don't, the report becomes law. Congress has never intervened in previous base-closing rounds.

Anthony Principi, the panel's chairman, said he's proud of the commission's work and recommendations. "We reached our decisions through an open, fair and non-partisan process," he said

Officials in communities surround Fort Hood told News Ten they were disappointed by the commission’s decision to approve a Pentagon recommendation to shift thousands of troops from the Central Texas post to Fort Carson, Colo.

The plan means that after peaking at about 49,000 next year, troop strength at Fort Hood would drop to about 41,000 by the end of the decade, but Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said she plans to try to convince the Army to figure out a way to increase the numbers so the post will be closer to it’s 50,000 soldier capacity.

The full economic impact of the commission’s decisions to close or downsize some military bases in Texas while enhancing others won't be felt for years, but so far, a few things seem clear: San Antonio and El Paso are the big winners in the latest Base Closure and Realignment Commission round.

The Corpus Christi area and Wichita Falls will absorb the greatest hits, and Texarkana gets the prize for being the luckiest.

Assuming no big disruptions to the base closure plan, El Paso's Fort Bliss will get thousands of troops returning from posts in Germany and Korea.

San Antonio will benefit from a major consolidation in military medical care. It stands to see a net gain of 4,000 plus jobs as a result.

The shut down of Naval Station Ingleside could cost the Coastal Bend region as many as 7,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to local estimates.

Sheppard Air Force Base, near Wichita Falls, is in line to lose more than 2,000 personnel under the realignment plan adopted by the commission.

Far northeast Texas will also have to deal the impacts of both closure and realignment.

The Red River Army Depot will lose roughly 350 jobs and the neighboring Lone Star Ammunition Army Ammunition Plant is on track for closure at a cost of about 400 jobs.

The contractor that operates Lone Star plant has said it will pursue a plan to privatize the facility.

Click Here For Base Realignment And Closure Commission Web Site

Click Here For Department Of Defense BRAC Web Site