Cheney Picks 207 Projects for Review : Budgets: The Defense secretary says the work may be canceled. He extends a freeze on $7 billion in construction.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney extended the Pentagon’s freeze on military construction projects today and ordered that 207 projects--including four controversial Navy ports in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and New York--be reviewed for possible cancellation.

Cheney’s action caused consternation on Capitol Hill, which has been locked with Cheney in a tense debate over slashing the defense budget and some lawmaker’s attempts to protect local jobs.

Cheney, in a statement issued at the Pentagon, said the order affects “more than $7 billion in new construction contracts” in the United States, Western Europe and the Pacific.

The 207 construction projects to be reviewed are valued at $1.2 billion and include four of the sites identified by the Navy as strategic home ports in Ingleside, Tex.; Mobile, Ala.; Pascagoula, Miss., and Staten Island, N.Y., the statement said.

The secretary said he was forced to continue the freeze--instituted in January--through June 15 because of possible budget cutbacks ordered by Capitol Hill and the sweeping changes in international events.

“In light of the enormous uncertainty over the level of funding that Congress will approve for future defense budgets, including the budget for fiscal 1991, I have no choice but to extend the construction freeze,” Cheney said.

Citing changes in the world situation and increasing budget limitations, Cheney said, “Signifcant opportunities exist to reduce the cost and size of the future infrastructure for the Department of Defense.

“Some of these actions may not be popular with members of Congress who want to cut the defense budget even as they plead to save the projects in their own states and districts,” he said. “But when tight budgets force dedicated soldiers to turn in their uniforms and leave the service, I cannot put construction projects ahead of people.”