THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511200107
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The future of U.S. submarine building was determined this month by eight senators, congressmen and naval officers who met around a polished table in House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich's office.
The men had fought for months over who would build America's submarines. It was time for a compromise.
The Clinton administration and the Pentagon wanted to give all contracts to the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn. With $60 billion and thousands of jobs at stake over the next 20 years, Newport News Shipbuilding demanded that the Peninsula yard keep building subs.
A defense bill passed by the House did away with a third Seawolf submarine, and gave Electric Boat other submarine contracts. The House bill also said that in order to keep U.S. subs technologically advanced, four prototype subs would be built, and that work would be divided among the two shipyards. The Senate proposed building the third Seawolf at Electric Boat, dividing the first two of the new class of submarines between the yards, and holding a competition between the companies for future contracts.
Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, R-1st, called for the meeting Nov. 9 to work out the compromise.
``We'd just been at an impasse,'' Bateman said. ``The Senate proposal that was being sent over to us and what we were sending over to them and what the speaker's office was proposing just weren't going anywhere.''
Sen. John Warner, R-Va. and author of the Senate plan, was there. So was Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the National Security subcommittee that oversees weapons purchases and the author of the House plan. Hunter's Senate counterpart, Trent Lott, R-Miss., dropped in. The Navy's chief of operations and its top lobbyist were there, as was the Pentagon's comptroller.
While Gingrich had held meetings with each side in the debate, he was embroiled in the budget feud with the White House at the time of the sub meeting. A staff member sat in for him.
Bateman and his staff came up with a new plan to pitch at the meeting.
Bateman proposed that the third Seawolf and the first and third subs of the new class be built at Electric Boat. The second and fourth subs of the new class would be built at Newport News.
Starting with the fifth sub of the new class in 2002 or 2003, the two yards would compete for further contracts. Finally, millions of dollars would be spent for research and development to ensure that the new subs contain the best technologies.
After a 90-minute morning meeting, each participant took the proposal back to his own side for advice, then returned for an afternoon session. Two hours later, they emerged with the agreement.
``It was not a contentious or difficult session,'' Bateman recalled. ``It was a matter of getting all of the people in the room at the same time.''
``Basically, the sub package remains as I put it together on the Senate side with one significant addition for the House,'' Warner said. ``Newport News will be given an equal opportunity to compete.''
On the day the agreement was disclosed last week, the House and Senate approved a defense appropriations bill that would allocate more than $1 billion for sub work this year. The sub agreement, as part of the defense authorization bill, will spell out exactly how that money is to be spent.
KEYWORDS: SUBMARINE by CNB