THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 6, 1995 TAG: 9502060203
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The Clinton administration sends Congress a 1996 defense budget plan today that would continue to trim the military, providing enough money for only three new warships, fewer than 20 attack jets and no additional tanks.
The $258 billion proposal includes substantial investments in maintaining and training existing forces and providing ``quality of life'' improvements for troops. And while it continues a defense downturn that began in the mid-1980s, the proposal is substantially larger than the combined defense budgets of America's adversaries.
As promised, the budget provides for cost of living adjustments in military pay and increases the basic allowance for quarters to bring it within 15 percent of the average cost of housing. It also puts cost of living increases in military pensions on the same schedule as increases for other government pensions.
If Congress approves, the budget will bring a bottoming out of spending on new weaponry. Clinton wants $39.4 billion for additional weapons, a 71 percent drop from outlays in 1985. The administration says weapons buys should begin a slow increase in 1997.
A new submarine, the third and last in the Seawolf class, is the largest single piece of hardware in the budget. The Navy is seeking more than $1.5 billion for the ship, which officials concede is being built not so much because the fleet needs it, but because shipbuilding companies - and skilled workers - needed for the future may go broke without it.
The sea service also wants $2.17 billion for two additional Arleigh Burke class destroyers.
The budget's release, officials acknowledged last week, sets the stage for a prolonged struggle with Republican ``defense hawks'' who contend that after 10 years of cuts the nation's defenses are imperiled and ``deficit hawks'' who believe further trimming is in order.
A year ago, Clinton largely disarmed the hawks by calling a temporary halt to defense reductions. The 1995 budget plan Congress approved in September cut spending in inflation-adjusted dollars by only 2 percent from 1994 levels.
But the administration's new proposal would trim another 5.3 percent off the 1995 budget. Factoring in inflation, a senior defense official told reporters Friday, Congress' new Republican majority will have to come up with an additional $16.6 billion just to keep the 1996 budget level with '95.
Some GOP lawmakers have suggested that the gap be closed in part by cutting up to $11 billion ``non-defense'' items from the defense budget - including environmenal cleanups - and shifting the dollars ``saved'' to weapons procurement and research.
Defense Secretary William Perry has indicated the administration will oppose such moves. Much of what critics suggest is non-defense is in fact vital to national security, the administration argues.
Perry in particular has defended a $400 million aid program under which the U.S. is helping Russia dispose of nuclear material amassed by the former Soviet Union. Such efforts are ``defense by other means,'' he argues. ILLUSTRATION: Lat year, the president called a temporary halt to defense cuts.
The new proposal calls for another 5.3 percent off the 1995 budget.
HAMPTON ROADS BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
$ in millions
Portsmouth Naval Hospital, continue construction: 71.9
Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Bachelor enlisted qtrs: 9.5
Norfolk Naval Station, oily waste collection sys.: 10.6
Cheatham Annex, Bachelor enlisted qtrs.: 6.1
Fort Eustis, Deployment training facility: 5.4
Naval Special Warfare Group, HQ, Dam Neck: 6.1
Amphibious Operations Support Bld., Dam Neck: 4.5
KEYWORDS: DEFENSE SPENDING MILITARY SPENDING BUDGET by CNB