New England left off base review panel

Read more

The president's nominees to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission disappoint Maine base backers. Read the story.

To top of story

WASHINGTON — President Bush named the group Tuesday that may decide the fate of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and the Brunswick Naval Air Station. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission will review the Defense Department's list of recommended base closures - a list that is expected to include as many as one-fourth of all military bases nationwide. None of the president's nominees is from New England, and Maine lawmakers immediately expressed concern about the group.

"I am profoundly disappointed that President Bush did not ensure a regionally balanced commission by naming a nominee from New England," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. "I believe this disturbing decision compromises fairness and balance in a process that is vitally important to our nation's defense and in which the stakes for local communities are extraordinarily high, especially given the fact that New England has lost 50 percent of its military installations in the prior four rounds of base closings."

Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, met with Brunswick's advocates on Tuesday, and a top Pentagon official toured Brunswick and Portsmouth on Monday. Lawmakers are assembling information about the superiority of submarine maintenance at the Kittery yard and the strategic importance of Brunswick as the only active-duty air base in the Northeast.

Collins, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, commended the nominees for their diverse backgrounds but said she would review their qualifications carefully before the confirmation vote.

"I am disappointed that there is no representative from the Northeast," she said. "I think it is important that the members of the commission have a working knowledge of the different military installations across the country and the unique contributions each makes to our nation's security, in order to ensure a process that is fair, equitable and objective."

Rep. Tom Allen, the Democrat who represents Maine's 1st Congressional District, said that "geographic representation from the Northeast would have made us a lot more comfortable."

Allen said that many of the commission's members "have military background, they probably have lived in a number of different places around the country, but still the South and the West dominate this commission as they do the administration, and I just hope that doesn't mean a bias in the recommendations of the commission."

Bush had already named Anthony Principi, a former secretary of veterans affairs, as his nominee for commission chairman. Members of Congress from both parties recommended most of the other members to the president.

Those nominees include many high-ranking military officers, such as retired Navy Adm. Harold Gehman Jr., former supreme allied commander of the Atlantic, and political figures, such as Samuel Skinner of Illinois, chief of staff and transportation secretary to the first President Bush.

The panel is expected to have a huge impact on military installations nationwide.

Four earlier rounds closed a total of 97 major facilities, saving $35 billion through 2004, according to the Government Accountability Office. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he would like to close as many as 25 percent of the country's 425 bases to save an estimated $7 billion a year.

By May 16, the Pentagon will recommend a list of bases to close. The commission will review those recommendations and submit a final list to Bush by Sept. 8.

If Bush rejects the list, the commission will have until Oct. 20 to change it. Bush must send the revisions to Congress by Nov. 7. Unless Congress rejects the entire list, it will take effect after 45 days.

There is a widespread belief among lawmakers and advocates that being on the Pentagon's initial list will be tantamount to closure. That is why advocates are scrambling now to make their case with Pentagon officials. The Maine delegation has sent dozens of letters and hosted tours to promote the value of the bases.

Reader Comments
How do you think the bases at Brunswick and Kittery will fare in the next round of base closures?

To top of page