Senate Negotiators Back Base Closures

Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday to a $344-billion defense authorization bill that requires a new round of military base closings sought by the Pentagon but pushes the process back two years to 2005.

The compromise measure developed by leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees will be taken up today by negotiators from the House, which had refused to accept an earlier Senate proposal for a base-closing round in 2003.

The agreement on a base closing plan is expected to break the deadlock over the measure authorizing defense spending for fiscal 2002, which had been hung up for months by the base closing dispute.

The Senate narrowly voted in September to back a new round of base closures--the first since 1995--in 2003. The House, where base closings are politically unpopular because they cost jobs and hurt local economies, refused to go along.

The Bush administration pushed hard for the closings and threatened to veto the bill without the provision. Defense officials say up to 25% of bases in the United States could be closed at a yearly savings of $3 billion, which could be spent on military modernization or new weapons.

By pushing back the new round to 2005, the tough decisions would come after the 2004 elections, and wavering lawmakers would have additional time to assess the Pentagon’s needs after the war in Afghanistan.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a Republican and co-sponsor of the original Senate base closing plan, said 2005 was too long to wait and he would not sign the conference report. But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters a majority of conferees had signed the report during a closed-door meeting.