"This BRAC is much more political than previous BRAC rounds ..."
That's my impression as well. This time, it seems that explicit attention has been given to the local economic (and, by extension, political) impact of a particular closing, which I thought was beyond the mandate of the BRAC process.
Don't forget that even tho it's mandated that it's all or nothing when it comes to acceptance by the President, ole slick willie defied that and kept a base open to please one of his cronies.