Community leaders and local officials who depend on healthy, functioning military installations are headed to this month’s Installation Innovation Forum at a moment of acute uncertainty. The Association of Defense Communities (ADC) plans to launch a brand-new Defense Community Supporter Program during the event, an initiative ADC says will give Americans an additional avenue to connect with and support towns and neighborhoods tied to defense installations. The forum itself is proceeding despite the ongoing government shutdown, ADC recently announced.

The program launch comes in the shadow of a New York Times report that the Department of Defense has delayed the deadline for cleaning up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, at nearly 140 military installations. PFAS chemicals have been linked to a range of health concerns and their persistence in the environment has made contamination adjacent to bases a high-profile issue for communities across the country. Local leaders attending the forum will confront the operational and political implications of both the delay and the broader fiscal uncertainty that the shutdown has introduced.

For many installation communities, the forum has become an annual locus for tackling real-world problems that straddle federal, state and municipal authority: housing, workforce development, environmental remediation, and the surge of technology projects aimed at making installations more efficient and resilient. That these conversations are continuing while federal agencies operate under constrained conditions speaks to the role of nonfederal actors — trade associations, local governments, and private partners — in sustaining the civil infrastructure around bases. ADC’s new Supporter Program appears designed to formalize and expand that civic role at a time when federal timelines are in flux.

The Pentagon’s reported postponement of PFAS cleanup deadlines raises immediate questions about accountability, funding flows and public health oversight. Installation communities have long pressed for transparency and timely remediation; delays risk prolonging exposure risks and stoking legal and political backlash at local and state levels. With federal resources stretched by the shutdown, communities are likely to look to alternative mechanisms — public-private partnerships, philanthropic support and advocacy campaigns — to keep remediation and monitoring programs moving.

There are also diplomatic and alliance implications. U.S. military installations abroad, and host nations that host them, have increasingly expected high environmental and safety standards. A perception that standards or schedules are slipping at home can resonate with foreign partners and complicate basing negotiations in sensitive regions. Allies and nearby communities monitor how the United States manages contamination and community relations, viewing domestic precedents as a barometer of reliability.

As the Installation Innovation Forum convenes, participants will focus on concrete outcomes rather than rhetoric: how to sustain essential services around installations during federal gaps, how ADC’s Supporter Program can mobilize broader civic engagement, and how to push the Pentagon toward enforceable, health-protective cleanup plans. The coming weeks — and any new guidance from the Department of Defense — will determine whether communities see temporary mitigation of federal uncertainty or a deeper shift in how environmental and civic responsibilities are distributed around the nation’s defense enterprise.