THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994 TAG: 9406240541
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940624 LENGTH: WASHINGTON
The 72-24 vote put both houses of Congress on record in support of the $4.5 billion ship, which is to be built at Newport News Shipbuilding. The House of Representatives backed the carrier in a vote last month, and though several more steps remain in the legislative process, carrier supporters suggested only a cataclysmic turn of events could stop the project.
{REST} ``It's a done deal,'' a jubilant Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., said after the vote as he exchanged congratulatory handshakes with shipyard lobbyists outside the Senate chamber.
``This is the culmination of a decade of work,'' Warner said. ``They lived in my office,'' he added, grinning and gesturing toward the lobbyists. ``I'm gonna charge 'em rent.''
Warner and Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., led a coalition of 38 Republicans and 34 Democrats to defeat attempts by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., to delay the start of construction on the carrier until the end of the decade.
The new ship, designated CVN-76, is the largest single item in the Clinton administration's 1995 defense program. Congress appropriated $800 million for the carrier's nuclear power plant several years ago; the $3.6 billion approved Thursday would complete construction.
John H. Dalton, secretary of theNavy, praised the vote and called the carrier ``the Navy's No. 1 priority.'' He said the service ``made the hard choices'' to cut other spending ``so that we could have funds for this replacement aircraft carrier.''
Feingold said he supports carriers but believes the military could make do with 11 of them. That's one fewer than the Navy and the administration say are needed to project U.S. power around the world but several more than some independent analysts have suggested are required, he noted.
``This is not an attack on the military,'' Feingold said. ``It is a strong suggestion that we can find another way.''
Feingold said that the $3.6 billion for the carrier could be better used on other weapons systems, including additional amphibious assault ships and cruisers equipped with the Navy's AEGIS weapons system. He also rattled off a list of possible domestic uses for the money, including anti-crime efforts and research on cures for AIDS and Alzheimer's disease.
But Robb countered that a delay would kill the carrier and ``cripple America's ability to ever build another one.'' Executives of Newport News Shipbuilding already plan to reduce their work force from 21,000 to around 14,000; they had said that a delay in or loss of the carrier would force an additional 4,000 layoffs, leaving the massive yard with too little work to remain profitable and perhaps forcing its closure.
``We're obviously very pleased that the Senate supports CVN-76, and in healthy numbers,'' Jack Garrow, a Newport News Shipbuilding spokesman, said after the vote.
Not only Virginia jobs were at stake in the proposal, Warner reminded his colleagues. The Navy estimates that subcontractors in 42 states will be involved in the carrier's construction, he said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Navy pilot, practically hooted at Feingold's assertion that other, cheaper ships might do as well as a carrier in projecting U.S. might.
``I'd ask if the senator from Wisconsin has ever been aboard an aircraft carrier,'' McCain said. When Feingold conceded that he had not, McCain suggested that his colleague make the trip to ``find out what they do. . . . You wouldn't believe, after you've been there, that AEGIS cruisers can take the place of aircraft carriers.''
by CNB