Political Fight Looms
Over Military-Base Closings
By GREG JAFFE and JOHN D. MCKINNON
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 29, 2005; Page A4
WASHINGTON -- As an independent commission finalized its list of military-base closings, questions loomed about other defense facilities across the country.
While President Bush and Congress are likely to approve the commission's plan, it seems certain that some recommended closings -- particularly those involving Air National Guard units -- will get tied up in court. Some analysts said the political fight over bases could make it hard for the Pentagon to push through another round of closings anytime soon.
The list voted on last week "might be our last chance for a generation," said Christopher Hellman, a base-closure specialist with the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation here, a group that monitors defense issues and works to eliminate nuclear weapons. "Congress is really unhappy about this."
As the nine-member panel was finishing its work Friday, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that the Pentagon couldn't shutter an Air Guard unit in Pennsylvania without approval by the state's governor, who sued to stop the closing. The judge declared the Pentagon's plan "null and void."
A number of states are watching the Air Guard realignment plan, which called for some units to lose their planes in an effort to slim down operations and to consolidate missions. Illinois and Tennessee have sued the Pentagon over closing plans, and Missouri, Connecticut and Massachusetts are threatening similar action.
Some lawmakers said politics played too big a role in the commission's decisions. In a notable reversal of the Pentagon, the panel decided to keep open Ellsworth Air Force base in South Dakota, saving more than 3,800 jobs. The decision was a victory for Sen. John Thune, a freshman Republican who beat former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in November by claiming that if elected he could better defend Ellsworth from efforts to close it. The base is the state's second-largest employer.
The panel found that, instead of saving $1.8 billion over two decades as the Pentagon claimed, shuttering Ellsworth and relocating its fleet of B-1 bombers would cost about $20 million over the same period. The commission also overruled the Pentagon's request to shutter two Navy bases in New London, Conn., and Kittery, Maine.
Military analysts said the commission's overrides of the Pentagon's plan indicate it is more Washington-wise and attuned to local wishes than previous panels. "They are political in the sense of being populist -- they listen more to people," said Jeremiah Gertler, a senior analyst for the 1995 base-closing panel who is now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
In addition to reversing the Pentagon on several high-profile bases, this commission also has fashioned Washington-style compromises that allow bases to keep operating, but often with conditions.
Experts said the panel, like prior commissions, accepted the majority of closings and realignments the Pentagon wanted. But the changes the commission made to the list significantly affected projected savings. The Pentagon projected that its plan to close or consolidate 62 major bases and 775 smaller ones would save $48.8 billion over the next 20 years. But based on its preliminary estimate, the commission said its changes would lower the expected savings to $37 billion. |
