Elizabeth Ahlersmeyer has some tough decisions to make over the next two years.

Her job as a program analyst for the Defense Information Systems Agency is moving from Arlington, Va., to a new building at Fort Meade, Md., in early 2011. She likes working for DISA, but the prospect of fighting Washington's notorious traffic while commuting more than 30 miles from her home in Alexandria, Va., to Maryland — which will probably take at least 50 minutes each way — doesn't thrill her. Neither does selling her house in the current housing market. Neither does searching for a new job, since she's happy with DISA's work life and employee development programs.

"I'm weighing quite a few factors," Ahlersmeyer said.

Ahlersmeyer isn't alone. Roughly 36,000 civilian Defense Department employees are due to be relocated over the next three years as part of the base realignment and closure, or BRAC, process.

Defense Department agencies are taking some unique steps to hold on to as many of them as possible. They are building Web sites where employees can find benefits to help them move or other job opportunities elsewhere in Defense. Some want to expand the use of telework to accommodate employees who don't want to move closer to their new workplaces.

And the Pentagon is broadening its program for compensating military service members and civilian employees who have to sell their homes because of BRAC. Previously, those who lost money on the sale of their home had to prove the loss was because BRAC moves depressed housing values in the area. But because the collapse of the housing industry has brought down home values nationwide — making it nearly impossible to prove a decline was due to BRAC — Congress broadened the requirements when it passed the stimulus bill in February. Now, any Defense employee or service member who bought a home before July 2006 and has to sell his house for a loss before October 2012 because of BRAC can be compensated for some of the loss.

The stimulus bill authorizes payments of up to 95 percent of the loss, but the Pentagon is still trying to decide how much it will offer.

The Pentagon also could buy the house of an employee affected by BRAC for up to 90 percent of the prior fair market value, or help pay the balance of a mortgage if a home's sale price isn't enough to repay the entire mortgage.

"I think that would help a lot of people, because that's a real concern for folks," Ahlersmeyer said. "When people talk about moving, they say, ‘I wouldn't be able to sell my house right now.' "

Defense said about 17,000 employees affected by BRAC could use this program. The entire program — which also benefits wounded warriors, other transferred employees, and surviving spouses of combat victims — could cost $555 million.

Telework options

Some DISA employees already know they don't want to move. Budget analyst Juan Ramirez likes his home and friends in Falls Church, Va., so he plans to use a mixture of teleworking and commuting to Fort Meade after the move is complete. Ramirez already teleworks from home from time to time, but he wants to work out a schedule where he can telework on a regular basis after the move.

Jack Penkoske, DISA's manpower, personnel and security director, said about 45 percent of DISA's 2,500 civilian employees now telework, some up to three days a week. But DISA plans to encourage more employees to telework to lessen BRAC's impact, and Penkoske hopes to have anywhere from 55 percent to 65 percent of employees teleworking regularly in a few years. DISA also covers half of the cost of broadband Internet for employees who telework at least one day every pay period.

"We're constantly having education seminars [on telework] so managers know what their responsibilities are, and employees do, too," Penkoske said.

DISA also wants to set up a series of van pools or buses to pick up commuting employees at the Greenbelt Metro station — 18 miles from Fort Meade — or other locations and drive them to Fort Meade.

DISA's BRAC Web site, which went online in February, lets employees organize carpools, share commuting strategies, learn about housing and schools in the Fort Meade area, and find information about moving benefits.

Retention, recruitment strategies

Penkoske said many of DISA's employees — such as information technology specialists, electrical engineers, contract specialists, budget analysts and accountants — have highly specialized skills, and the agency doesn't want to lose them. DISA plans to use an authority granted in 2007 to give bonuses of up to 25 percent of basic pay to retain employees who are likely to go to other federal jobs or elsewhere.

Other Defense organizations also plan to use incentive payments. About 370 civilian employees at Fort Monroe, Va., which is slated to close in 2011, are due to transfer to Fort Knox, Ky., or Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Samantha Newman, Fort Monroe's civilian personnel director, said about one-quarter of those employees are willing to move, so the Army will offer relocation bonuses of up to 25 percent of basic pay to encourage more to transfer.

But even that won't be enough to persuade some employees to leave Virginia, and Newman said Defense doesn't want to lose them. So Fort Monroe is pointing those employees to its Web site listing other Defense jobs in the area.

"These are budget, human resources, IT, training people," Newman said. "We want to hold on to them."

Agencies are already starting to plan to replace the employees who quit because of BRAC. Recruiters from the Army Life Cycle Management Command and Army Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance team, which will move from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., by 2012, are attending job fairs and participating in job placement programs for wounded soldiers to attract employees.

DISA expects about 3,000 people to attend its June 13 job fair in Baltimore, and wants to use direct hire authority to bring new employees on immediately.

In the meantime, Ramirez is plotting the best way to get to Fort Meade on the days when he can't telework, whether that means finding routes to drive, or riding his bike to the Metro stop three-quarters of a mile from his home.

"I'll just have a good iPod mix and bring some work with me," Ramirez said.

KAREN JOWERS contributed to this article.

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