ROBB: DEFENSE CUTS A PRECURSOR MORE PROGRAMS WILL GET AX, SENATOR SAYS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993                   TAG: 9303210045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ROBB: DEFENSE CUTS A PRECURSOR MORE PROGRAMS WILL GET AX, SENATOR SAYS
Sen. Charles Robb warned Saturday that cuts in defense spending, which will cost 15,000 jobs in Virginia and a million nationwide, are just the beginning of cuts in other federal programs.
"Defense cuts may not have that much direct impact on the Roanoke Valley," Robb said at the annual dinner of the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, "and for that, thank your lucky stars.
"But they are a precursor of things to come in all areas of government spending."
Virginia will lose defense jobs primarily in the northern part of the state and in Tidewater, Robb said. "We're looking right now at whether those cuts are fair, given what was allocated to the rest of the country."
With more defense spending in Virginia than in any other state, Robb said it's appropriate to concentrate time and energy on the subject.
Robb said the rest of the state "did pretty well - this time.
"But your neighbors down in the New River Valley are smarting from the ongoing cuts at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant," he said.
"That situation is a little bit unusual, since the most recent round stems from damage due to a plant accident rather than budget cuts. But I believe the accident only hastened an inevitable process."
Proposed cuts in defense spending have a ripple effect in the economy, Robb said, and "it's not without interest in the Roanoke Valley.
"Whether you make night-vision equipment or run a carry-out luncheonette," he said, "the drawdown in defense and the conversion of military industry will affect you directly. It will affect more Americans than any other question that will come before the Armed Services Committee."
The good news, he said, is that the impact will not be very significant nationwide. In national terms, he said, the drawdown will be smaller than those that followed Korean and Vietnam wars.
He said the administration is committed to improving federal assistance programs to help manage the transition.
The federal government should focus on two roles in the defense conversion, according to Robb.
"The first is to act as a short-term backstop to help you ride out the initial hit of a local drawdown.
"And the second is to stimulate the national economy, to provide new opportunities for formerly defense-dependent firms and their employees in the private sector," Robb said.
"The federal government provides a safety net, and we'll be working to improve it," Robb said. "The problem is that you have to fall a long way to hit it."
He said the Virginia Employment Commission has done good work on the problem, while the government has aid programs to stimulate small businesses.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB