Senators balk at list of base closures

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Senators balk at list of base closures

USA TODAY1 hour, 13 minutes ago



Some of President Bush's Republican allies in Congress are joining Democrats in challenging the Bush administration to try to save military bases that have been targeted by the Pentagon to be closed or shrunk.



Several Republican senators who face re-election next year are demanding that bases in their states be removed from the list released Friday. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced recommendations that 150 military installations, including 33 major bases, be closed and operations - and jobs - shifted from hundreds more. (Related story: Community prepared to fight)



Rumsfeld said the changes would save $48.8 billion over 20 years and make the military more efficient by merging operations.



The base-closing process was designed to limit political maneuvering. The Pentagon's list will be reviewed by an independent commission that will hear testimony today from Rumsfeld. It takes the votes of seven of the nine members to add facilities to the list; it takes five votes to get one off the list. Once the commission is done, Bush must accept or reject the whole list. It will become final unless Congress votes to reject the entire list.



Even so, lobbying began long before the list was released. Several states hired lobbyists. Gov. Edward Rendell says Pennsylvania will spend $1 million fighting proposed closings. In four previous rounds, 85% of recommended closings and realignments went through.



The recommendations show a shift of troops and operations to the South and West. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas - all "red states," those that Bush carried in the 2004 election - would gain. Connecticut, Maine and New York, all "blue states," would lose. "The 'blue states' really took it on the chin," Connecticut state Sen. Gary LeBeau, a Democrat, says on his Web site. "There is certainly a political aspect to this."



But Sen. Olympia Snowe (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, who faces voters next year and whose state would lose the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, says on her site that the plan is "stunning, devastating, and above all, outrageous." Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., who's also on the ballot in 2006, will fight for his state's endangered bases. "This process is not over," he says on his site.



Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., also hopes to buck the odds. During Thune's campaign last year, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist went to South Dakota to assure voters that Ellsworth Air Force Base, the state's No. 2 employer, would have a better chance if Thune defeated Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.



"Who is the president going to listen to more?" Frist asked in May 2004. Not, he suggested, "a senator from another party." Now that the commission has recommended closing Ellsworth, Thune says on his site that he'll introduce legislation to stop or delay the action until the Pentagon first assesses overseas bases. "Closing Ellsworth would weaken America's homeland security," he says.



The list gives the clearest picture yet of the new military envisioned by Rumsfeld. The changes would enhance cooperation and strengthen ties among active-duty units, the National Guard and reserve.



For example, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., would be merged with a Navy facility in Maryland. A top Army headquarters and an Army Special Forces unit would move to Air Force bases. Pilots who fly the new F-35, no matter which branch they are in, would train at a single base.



Other changes:



• The National Guard and reserve, increasingly major parts of combat operations, would move closer to the active-duty military.



• Support activities such as health care and accounting that are now in leased space in cities would be moved to military bases to increase security and save money.



• Rumsfeld, who once planned to cut the size of the Army, now makes room for the military to grow. No Army base that houses combat troops is targeted, reflecting the Army's plan to add 30,000 troops. There were no major Marine Corps bases on the list, a signal that it needs space.



"What we are looking at is a world when life may get really tough, and you don't want to give up on land and area and options," says Dan Goure, a military analyst at Virginia's Lexington Institute.