Senate Rejects New Round of Military Base Closures

Ignoring Pentagon pleas, the Senate voted, 60 to 40, Wednesday to block a round of cost-saving military base closings proposed for 2001.

The Clinton administration argued that the closures are needed to free funds to help modernize a military stretched even thinner by the conflict in the Balkans.

But Republicans said they mistrust the process, renewing allegations that President Clinton meddled in 1995 to save jobs at bases in vote-rich California and Texas. And Democratic support for another round was mixed, with Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) among the opponents.

It was the third year in a row that the administration’s plan for additional base closings was rejected by Congress.

At the White House, spokesman Barry Toiv called the Senate action “a vote in favor of wasting defense resources that are needed to maintain our defense readiness.”

But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) called the proposal “one more stick in the eye that will adversely affect our military men and women.”

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen contends that closing antiquated bases, many of them Cold War relics, could save the Pentagon nearly $4 billion a year that would be better spent on aircraft carriers, jet fighters and other crucial hardware.

But Congress is still smarting from rounds in 1991, 1993 and 1995 that closed 70 bases and depots.

In what also is becoming a perennial vote, the Senate rejected, 51 to 49, a move to lift a ban on abortions at military hospitals, even if the woman pays for the procedure.

The sponsors of ending the prohibition, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), argued that the restriction puts a heavy burden on military women stationed overseas.

The votes came as the Senate inched toward passage of a $288.8-billion defense spending bill for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The bill provides $8.3 billion more than Clinton sought for a variety of Pentagon programs.

The vote rejected a move by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to revive the base closure proposal.