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

DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994                   TAG: 9411110074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Short

GOP SENATOR CALLS FOR PROBE OF BASE REVIEW

A leading Republican demanded an investigation Thursday into whether the Clinton administration sought to manipulate a base closing question to help Sen. Charles Robb defeat Republican Oliver North.

Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said Thursday he wants to know why Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch asked the Navy shortly before Tuesday's election to review a decision to move military offices out of Virginia.

Spence, who is in line to become chairman of the armed services panel with the Republican takeover of the House, said the move by Deutch may have ``resulted from political considerations less than one week before an election in which a Virginia Senate seat and several congressional seats [were] in close contention.''

Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said the issue had nothing to do with politics.

Deutch asked the Navy this month to review the 1993 decision by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission to move the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, or NAVSEA, from Arlington, Va., to Maryland.

``The continued viability of the base closure process depends upon public confidence'' in the decision-making process and ``upon the absence of politics,'' said Spence.

by CNB