No Need for More B-2s, Clinton Says
In a move with potentially major economic and political consequences, the Clinton administration Thursday unexpectedly announced that its budget for next year will not include buying any more B-2 bombers from Northrop Grumman Corp.
“The administration believes that no additional B-2s are required” beyond the 20 that have already been ordered at a cost exceeding $40 billion, Robert G. Bell, a senior director at the National Security Council, said at a White House briefing.
The decision stunned B-2 supporters in Congress, at Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and elsewhere in California, because the White House had indicated as recently as Tuesday that it was relaxing its long opposition to expanding the B-2 fleet and favored spending more on the program.
President Clinton’s action could carry significant political risks because he appears to be shelving California’s biggest aerospace program--which supports about 25,000 state jobs directly and indirectly--just as his local reelection effort is gearing up.
Gov. Pete Wilson was quick to criticize Clinton’s move, saying in a statement that “this shocking and senseless decision betrays more than 20,000 dedicated workers in California’s aerospace industry.” The announcement “defies the expressed will of Congress for a larger fleet of B-2s,” he said.
“It’s a surprise and a disappointment,” added Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills), a strong B-2 supporter.
But Pentagon officials, who have urged Clinton to stop the B-2 program, apparently caught the president’s ear this week. Defense Secretary William J. Perry has repeatedly said that the B-2s are too expensive for a military trying to purchase other weapons it considers more important.
Bell told the briefing that the administration “will not include money for additional B-2s in its fiscal year 1997 budget,” which covers the year starting Oct. 1.
The White House announcement does not completely preclude purchases of more B-2s. Congress eventually could appropriate more cash for the B-2 over Clinton’s objections. Also, the president has ordered the Pentagon to reevaluate the military’s long-range capabilities--including bombers, aircraft carriers and fighter jets--and that study might argue for more B-2s.
However, that report is not expected to be finished until early next year--after the election.
Production of the bat-winged, radar-evading B-2 bombers is concentrated at Northrop Grumman’s plants in Palmdale and Pico Rivera.
One of Northrop Grumman’s main subcontractors on the B-2 is Seattle-based Boeing Co., and House Democrat Norm Dicks of Washington state complained that “the Joint Chiefs put an all-out effort on stopping this. It is a terrible mistake for the United States.”
But opponents of the B-2 were elated. “I’m glad the president still agrees with the secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that we do not need, and cannot afford, more B-2s,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). “Buying more would’ve been an inexcusable waste of money.”
Some lawmakers were so confident that Clinton would buy more B-2s to gain political favor in California that they joked that the first new B-2 would carry the tail No. 54--the number of electoral votes at stake in California.
But “the president is very comfortable with the decision,” said a senior White House official familiar with the B-2 issue. “It was made on purely substantive grounds.”
Analysts were split--generally along partisan lines--over whether Clinton’s decision would cost him votes in California this year.
“I think politically there is no doubt this could damage the president,” said Tony Quinn, a Republican political analyst in Sacramento. “This is going to make people feel that carrying California is no longer a very high priority with Clinton.”
But Bob Mulholland, a political advisor to the California Democratic Party, said he did not expect any significant impact on Clinton’s reelection bid, because the president has aggressively helped California cope financially with earthquakes, fires and other disasters.
Political consultant Darry Sragow in Los Angeles said that if the administration “steps up to the plate and makes it clear it is willing to create jobs” outside of the B-2 program, “the administration will get through this.”
And Democrat Bill Lockyer, president pro tem of the state Senate, said that “while I may disagree with his decision on this issue, I understand there are limits to the federal Treasury.”
In any case, Harman said she and other B-2 supporters in Congress were attempting to meet with Clinton later this month to press for more B-2 purchases. “I don’t know that he’s [Clinton] made up his mind,” Harman said.
For now, though, it’s “certainly a disappointment for the people working on the program,” said Tony Cantafio, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman.
The B-2 program was in danger of folding last year, until Congress in December appropriated $493 million for future production of the planes in its fiscal 1996 budget. B-2 supporters had hoped that the money would pave the way for manufacturing additional planes.
Indeed, Northrop Grumman then announced it would not close its Pico Rivera plant in 1997, as it had earlier planned.
But Bell said that for now, the administration plans to spend the $493 million “on procurement of B-2 components, upgrades and modifications that will be of value for the existing fleet,” rather than on buying more bombers.
Cantafio said that the White House’s latest decision would not affect the company’s plans to extend the Pico Rivera site’s operations.
Still, Pico Rivera Mayor Garth G. Gardner said he’s “very disappointed” at Clinton’s decision. Residents were looking to the B-2 “to lift Pico Rivera and to help lift many areas in Southern California out of its current economic problems,” he said. “It appears we’ll have to look elsewhere to find a solution.”
Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Ralph Vartabedian and John M. Broder in Washington; Stuart Silverstein and Bill Stall in Los Angeles; Virginia Ellis, Paul Jacobs and Max Vanzi in Sacramento, and Times wire services.
