Joint Base Lewis-McChord officials told a Washington state legislative committee on Thursday that recent federal personnel actions and broader Army changes are reducing base authorizations and creating operational strain, particularly for fire, emergency dispatch and air traffic control.

"For here at JBLM, that amounts to about 283 authorizations, and that is right around 18% of our workforce," Col. Ken Park, the garrison commander at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, told the Joint Committee on Veterans' & Military Affairs. "We are having to close or bring down, our couple of our fire companies, or, you know, basically our fire stations."

The committee heard that the cuts followed voluntary separations under Defense Department programs (often called DRP/VERA) that resulted in about "60, 62" volunteers locally, a number Park described as far lower than initial projections. Installation Management Command chose to avoid involuntary terminations by removing unfilled authorizations instead, Park said, leaving roles such as physicians, air traffic controllers, 911 dispatchers and many firefighters harder to fill.

Park described specific operational effects: the base is routinely operating five of six fire companies and may fall to four at times depending on staffing, and leaders are weighing "very deliberate decisions in terms of the level of risk that they are willing to assume." He also said air traffic control is affected by a national shortage that is acute locally because civilian employers compete for the same personnel.

Park warned local mutual aid arrangements may be strained if fire season becomes active and the installation cannot provide expected off-installation response. "There's a possibility that we may not be able to respond as much when we are asked to come out off the installation for mutual aid agreement," he said, and that commanders are in discussions with local agencies to coordinate contingency plans.

The committee also heard about the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI), a multi-year force redesign Park described as "once in a generation" changes that will change what units are based at JBLM. "There are units here at JBLM that will go away. They will not be here. They're going to go away," he said, while also noting new, higher-technology unit types may arrive. Park said the Army has not finalized decisions and any large changes would take several years.

Separately, Park told members the JBLM Lewis Museum was placed on a Department of Defense list of locations slated for closure. "JBLM Museum was, named as 1 of the locations that will close down," he said, and estimated any closure would be "no earlier than 2027." Park said the building is also used for soldier training and that the likely local outcome under discussion is a partnership model or volunteer support that could keep exhibits and public access in place without the three funded museum positions that would be lost under a closure.

Committee co-chair Rep. Marie Levitt and other members asked about weekend public access and security; Park said the museum's separate entrance raised security concerns and that staffing reductions in non–wartime roles were a driver. He said leaders were pressing to keep exhibits local and to explore partnerships to maintain public hours where possible in the near term.

The committee did not take formal action on the JBLM items; members directed questions and requested continued updates from installation leaders about mutual-aid planning, fire-season readiness and the museum's status.

The garrison commander said he will transition from the post in early July and that his replacement was being vetted. The committee scheduled no votes on the matters reported during the meeting.