Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130155
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
SHUTDOWN LIKELY FOR 31 BASES
Defense Secretary Les Aspin on Friday proposed sweeping base closings that would cost the nation more than 80,000 military and civilian jobs - a grim statistic that sets the stage for a fierce political struggle.But if history is any guide, it's all over now except for the anguish.
That's because the independent base-closing commission created by Congress has rarely been swayed by pleas from hometown supporters. The panel has approved the closing of 120 installations since 1988 and saved only four.
Aspin proposed shutting down 31 major military installations inside the United States. The commission is expected to buy those proposals largely intact and, by law, its recommendations must be accepted or rejected by Congress without modification.
An aide said Aspin's list had been crafted to ensure its approval by Congress.
"The only members [of Congress] who really care about the list are those whose bases are slated to close," he said. "So long as they don't constitute a majority - and they don't - the bases will close because the other members want the savings and are happy their bases survived."
Congressional aides agreed. "Only a miracle or a lucky lawsuit will stop these closings," said one aide to a congressional Democrat who was denouncing the proposed closing of a local base Friday. "He's got to scream, but there's really not much we can do."
There was lots of screaming on Friday.
Several Republican senators suggested partisan politics played a role in the recommendations and promised to fight them.
Sen. Strom Thurmond, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said cuts in South Carolina's military bases were "unreasonable, unjustified, and outrageous."
But Democrats also were hit hard.
Rep. Ronald V. Dellums of California, the liberal Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, faces the loss of four bases in his Oakland, Calif., district, accounting for 20,000 of the 80,000 jobs that would be lost nationwide by 2000 due to the closings.
California, which has a 9.8 percent unemployment rate, is scheduled to lose seven major bases. They include the Alameda Naval Air Station, the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro and the Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
"We've just begun to fight," pledged Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Other big bases on the list include Fort McClellan in Alabama, the hurricane-ravaged Homestead Air Force Base in Florida and the Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina. There also are 134 smaller installations that will close, shrink, or grow under the plan.
The nation will pocket annual savings of $3.1 billion once all the bases are closed, Aspin said.