The meeting last week between the congressional delegations of Maine and New Hampshire and the chairman of the base closure commission, Anthony Principi, should have been informative. But it wasn’t because the information both the delegation and the commission need to review base closures is being held by the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, the deadline for the decision draws closer.

The Defense Department says the information is coming and more hasn’t been released because some of it is classified and must pass security checks. Even with considerably more information in this round of closures than in the previous four, the excuse is unacceptable. To make their cases to the BRAC commission, states must have the background data used by the Defense Department. To withhold or delay its release effectively removes the public from the process when BRAC legislation specifically includes public testimony.

According to 14 governors who sent a letter to President Bush on the issue, federal statute requires the data be made available no more than seven days after the closure list is released. That deadline passed two weeks ago, with the department now saying it will have unclassified material available by June 4, just a couple of days before the first hearings begin. And while the commission doesn’t make its decision until September, there are several intermediate points for Maine, including a tour today of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and, scheduled for Thursday, of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. Having the proper information could make a real difference in the state’s presentation of those facilities. Too late for this visit.

The delays explain the urgent letter from Sens. Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman, the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and senators representing two of the states DoD proposed hitting hardest with closures. Release every scrap of paper, the letter says – “not only all documents (e.g., email traffic, memoranda, spreadsheets, analyses, raw data, handwritten notes, and telephone logs) related to the Department’s decision-making process as set forth in the [National Defense Authorization] Act but also all documents that might reflect the influence or consideration of factors not authorized in that Act.” Or, the senators say, they’ll subpoena the department for the information.

The Pentagon responded late last week with a frustrating announcement – large amounts of technical information about the bases will be classified so that only member of Congress, their staff members with clearance and commission members can view it digitally at a secure reading room. That means that the information can’t then be used in public presentations – as when Maine’s delegation testifies before the BRAC commission – and it cannot share it with community experts on the bases. Practically, reviewing long analyses without removing or copying documents is difficult.

Releasing small bits of information over time, classifying broad subject areas and delaying promised data prevent states from making their case to keep open military facilities, though it may be easier for the Pentagon to defend its own decisions. If the subpoena threat doesn’t work, Maine’s congressional delegation should call on fellow members of Congress to delay the BRAC decision until all states have the time to fairly challenge the data.