Bush Proposes Transition Aid for Military : Budget: A $1.1-billion plan would ease the sting of cuts. His announcement ushers in a visit to California, which relies heavily on defense dollars.

President Bush on Thursday proposed adding $1.1 billion over five years to $7.1 billion in existing government programs to help communities, workers and retiring military troops cope with anticipated cuts in defense spending.

Bush announced the proposal on the eve of a two-day visit to California, a state expected to suffer significantly from reduced military spending and one in which Bush trails potential challengers Ross Perot and Bill Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee.

“I am committed to ensuring that the vast talents of former defense personnel can be put to productive use in private life,” the President told veterans assembled at an American Legion post.

The question of how to assist communities that depend heavily on defense dollars has slowly emerged as a potentially troublesome issue in an election year.

Clinton dramatized his plan for local assistance and retraining when he plunged into a crowd of hard-hat workers at a San Diego shipyard last week. He proposes a “national inventory” to match defense workers’ skills to domestic needs and using money previously dedicated to Cold War research to such civilian projects as high-speed rail systems, computer projects and communication systems.

The President’s announcement effectively reversed the Administration’s previous stand. Until Thursday, top Pentagon officials had contended that no additional spending was necessary to ease the transition because the economy most likely would make the adjustment on its own.

However, Bush’s spending proposal was still below those advanced in Congress. Both the House and Senate already have approved congressional budget resolutions that allocate an extra $1 billion to help with defense transition efforts in fiscal 1993 alone--more than five times the amount for which the President is calling.

Bush, who anticipates a 25% reduction in military forces over the next five years, said he and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney “are mindful of our obligation to treat defense and uniform employees and their communities fairly.”

Under the Administration’s plan for the next five fiscal years:

--Certain Defense Department civilian employees would be encouraged to accept early retirement, a course that would cost the government $459 million over the five years. This, according to a senior White House official, is the only element of the proposal that requires specific congressional approval.

--The Energy Department would pay for wider efforts to apply defense-related technologies to private sector use, at a cost of $250 million.

--Availability of GI Bill benefits would be expanded to cover troops leaving the military services voluntarily on the same basis as the coverage for those leaving involuntarily. It would apply to roughly 35,000 of the 2 million troops in the military. This would cost $216 million.

Lesser amounts would be available to help defense contractor employees and military personnel gain teaching certificates. One $30-million program would turn out about 3,000 math or science teachers a year, according to the White House.

In addition, the government would expand job training and placement assistance programs.

In California, the official said, the defense cutbacks are expected to cost 254,000 jobs by 1997. Of that total, 174,000 would be among civilian defense contractors, 59,000 in the military, and 21,000 among civilian employees of the Defense Department.

Although a senior White House official said the plan had been developed over 2 1/2 months, and elements of it had been ready for disclosure when Bush visited Los Angeles earlier this month, it was withheld because that trip focused on the Los Angeles riots.

Gerstenzang reported from Phoenix and Pine from Washington.