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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990                   TAG: 9005020077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHENEY EXTENDS CONSTURCTION FREEZE

Extending a $7-billion freeze on military construction projects and contemplating $1.2-billion in project cancellations, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney moved Tuesday to pre-empt criticism from lawmakers whose districts are affected.

The 207 projects listed for consideration for cutbacks or elimination included Navy strategic home ports in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and New York.

"There are a lot of members of Congress," he said, "who would like to be able to vote to cut the defense budget and then pick up the telephone and call me and say: `Dick, you're not going to shut my base down, are you? You're not going to close down my production line. You're not going to shut down my home port.'

"There is no way I can operate as secretary on the basis that lets members call me up and say: `Look, Dick, you know, I'm not going to be able to support the level of funding you want for defense - nothing personal - but don't close my facility.' "

If the military budget is to be cut, Cheney said, many lawmakers' constituents must feel the cuts.

Cheney extended the freeze through June 15 and ordered a study of possible cancellations. He said he did that because of the thawing of the Cold War and the "enormous uncertainty" about how much money Congress will give to the Defense Department in 1991 and later years.

Deputy Defense Secretary Donald Atwood is to study a list of 207 projects Cheney released Tuesday and recommend by June 1 whether they should be canceled. Atwood could add to the list.

Cheney said he hopes to send Congress a list of proposed cancellations later in June.

Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on military installations and facilities, said she was glad that Cheney's preliminary list included overseas work that she has opposed.

The Defense Department already is being squeezed by the Bush administration's plan to reduce military spending by 2 percent a year, Cheney said.

"Up till now," he said, "there has been a lot of high-level talk on Capitol Hill about cutting the defense budget - I think, oftentimes, on the assumption that that didn't mean that it was going to have any impact upon people or programs or facilities that Congress cares about."

by CNB