Senate OKs $1.2 Billion to Ease Pain of Pentagon Cuts : Congress: ‘Defense conversion’ program would aid contractors, communities and military personnel. No quick relief for Southland seen.

The Senate approved a $1.2-billion “defense conversion” program Friday designed to help ease the effect of Pentagon spending cuts on the economy, but the impact was expected to be modest, with no immediate relief for hard-hit Southern California.

The plan, similar to one already passed by the House, would provide federal money to help defense contractors develop new products to manufacture, enable laid-off military personnel and defense workers to seek retraining and assist local governments hurt by defense cutbacks in attracting new industry.

Approval came on a vote of 91 to 2 as senators from both parties--worried about possible job losses resulting from defense cutbacks--rushed to support the measure, which was proposed as an amendment to the fiscal 1993 defense authorization bill.

The Senate will resume work on the full bill Monday, when it is expected to vote on attempts to cut spending for the controversial B-2 Stealth bomber and the Strategic Defense Initiative, known more popularly as the “Star Wars” program.

The Bush Administration--and the Senate Armed Services Committee, which drafted the Senate bill--have proposed building four new B-2 bombers, but the House has voted to halt the order at the 16 already in production. The plane is manufactured by the California-based Northrop Corp.

The Senate is scheduled to complete work on the authorization bill Monday or Tuesday and send it to a joint House-Senate conference committee in time to work out differences between the House and Senate versions by mid-September.

The bill calls for military spending of $274.5 billion during fiscal 1993--$6.5 billion less than the Administration has requested and $4.5 billion more than the House has approved. The conference committee is expected to split the difference between the House and Senate bills.

President Bush has proposed cutting defense spending by $50 billion over the next five years, but the measure being considered by Congress deals only with fiscal 1993, which begins on Oct. 1, and lawmakers aren’t expected to address the longer-term cuts until next year or 1994.

The $1.2 billion in the defense conversion package was designed to help areas such as Southern California, which have been hit hard by the defense cutbacks, and to ease the transition of retiring military personnel to the civilian job market.

But while the conversion measure has been touted as a major initiative by the Democratic congressional leadership, defense analysts and economists say the effort is largely symbolic.

Most of the programs involve long-range research and retraining efforts, and some companies are expected to find it virtually impossible to convert to civilian products, they said.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, conceded in debate Friday that “we don’t promise that it’s going to solve all the pain” caused by defense cutbacks. “But,” he said, “we do believe it’s going to ease the transition.”

While both of California’s senators, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican John Seymour, voted for the amendment, they too were cautious about how much it would help.

“I wouldn’t raise expectations” too far, Seymour said.

The plan contains these major elements:

* A spate of additional federal grant programs to help defense contractors develop new products that could be used for civilian markets, with special emphasis on setting up government-business consortiums to underwrite research in manufacturing technology.

* An extra $233 million to help communities hurt by defense cutbacks by providing more money for grants to help local governments finance economic planning programs and capital investment needed to create new jobs.

* An estimated $463 million for programs to help military personnel and laid-off Defense Department workers make the transition to the civilian job market by offering them retirement incentives, scholarships, training and job counseling.

The bill also would establish a new program to enable the Pentagon to use military personnel to help meet domestic needs, such as building or repairing infrastructure.

It would also permit the National Guard to use its facilities and equipment to provide community-service projects to help high school dropouts learn job skills.

The Bush Administration has proposed its own, somewhat similar, defense “transition” program, but the measure calls for only $200 million in added spending and does not address the problem of how to help retiring military personnel.

There were no major battles in Friday’s floor debate.

Defense Cuts: Easing the Transition

Here are the major provisions of the plan the Senate approved to help ease the impact of Pentagon spending cuts on the economy:

INDIVIDUALS

Enables active-duty military personnel with skills that don’t translate to civilian jobs--such as combat infantry tactics--to apply for up to one year of leave for education or training.

Enables active-duty military personnel with 15 to 20 years of service to apply for early retirement with extra bonuses if they take civilian jobs in critical areas such as education, law enforcement and medical care.

Provides incentives of up to $20,000 for early retirement or resignation by Defense Department civilian employees who either have surplus skills or are employed at military installations that are facing closure or cutbacks.

COMMUNITIES

Provides an extra $25 million--on top of the $4.9 million requested by the Administration--for grants to help communities that have been hit hard by defense cutbacks to develop medium-term plans for revitalizing their economies.

Provides $58 million to help offset the impact of reduced enrollments in school districts where parents were laid off as a result of base closings or cutbacks in defense orders.

Authorizes $200 million for Pentagon support of programs to help defense-dependent companies acquire the capability to manufacture so-called “dual-use” products, which can be marketed to both military and civilian customers.

Source: Senate Armed Services Committee