|
PRINT
THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE
Wednesday, October 29, 1997
House to take up defense bill with depot measure
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House was poised Tuesday to take up a defense
bill that would chill plans to privatize the workloads at closing Air Force
depots in Texas and California.
Final House consideration of the $268 billion defense authorization was
stalled for four months because of a bitter dispute over privatization at
Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio and McClellan AFB in Sacramento, Calif.
Last week, the logjam was broken with a compromise that Texas lawmakers
contend would irretrievably harm competition between the public and private
sectors for the closing bases' work.
While the defense bill was expected to pass the House with ease, its
future in the Senate appeared more clouded.
Texas' two senators, joined by their California counterparts, are promising
to use every legislative tactic at their disposal to thwart consideration
of the bill.
White House officials have said that President Clinton will veto the
defense bill if it hits his desk with the depot provision intact.
Kelly and McClellan defenders found themselves outgunned by lawmakers
from Georgia, Oklahoma and Utah, who are eager to claim the closing bases'
work -- and jobs -- for military depots in their own states.
The compromise effectively would kill plans to privatize aircraft engine
repair at Kelly. San Antonio and Sacramento civic leaders and their supporters
in Congress have been working to spare 5,000 jobs at Kelly and 2,000 at
McClellan by bringing in private contractors to take over the military work.
The Pentagon maintains that competition between private contractors and
military depots saves taxpayer dollars. Under a competition earlier this
year for Kelly's C-5 maintenance workload -- which was won by an Air Force
depot in Georgia -- the Pentagon estimates it will save $190 million.
Advocates of bases elsewhere argue their depots, which already are operating
at less than full capacity, need the Texas and California work to be fully
efficient.
Under the deal, certain non-critical workloads at Kelly and McClellan
could survive under private-sector control but only if a contractor proposing
to do the work on site wins open bidding in which other defense firms and
remaining government repair depots could compete.
But Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, said the compromise effectively
would fend off bids from private contractors. "Nobody wants to bid
on something if you're ... already behind the eight ball before you even
get started," he said Tuesday.
Rodriguez and other Kelly backers are pinning their hopes on Texas GOP
Sens. Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison. The Texans, along with California
Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, have pledged to filibuster
the defense bill.
By filibustering, the Texas and California senators will force leadership
to find 60 votes to overcome the objection -- significantly raising the
hurdle for final passage.
With Congress eager to adjourn in early November, any stalling tactics
play into the hands of the Texas-California allies. "We plan to grab
onto this bill and hold on tight for as long as we can," Gramm spokesman
Larry Neal said.
Although Clinton has already signed a companion defense appropriations
bill into law, the authorization bill is needed to assure the full 2.8 percent
pay raise for the nation's 1.4 million-member active-duty military.
The turmoil over Kelly and McClellan dates to 1995, when an independent
base closure commission recommended the two bases' closure in 2001.
Mindful of the electoral clout of California and Texas, the administration
rebounded with a "privatization-in-place" plan that would give
much of the two bases' work to private contractors on site, shielding thousands
of jobs.
That plan sparked outrage in Congress, where lawmakers accused Clinton
of improper meddling in the base-closings process.
| 
