N.E. lawmakers join to fight base closures

January 27, 2012|By Bryan Bender

New England lawmakers vowed to protect Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford… (Tom Landers/Globe Staff/file)

WASHINGTON - New England lawmakers yesterday disparaged a Pentagon proposal to reduce its facilities nationwide, with several vowing to join forces to protect Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford and other installations from Maine to Connecticut.

The Obama administration revealed its request for another round of base closings yesterday on top of its overall plan to slice $487 billion from projected military spending over the next decade. Also included in those cuts, mandated by Congress, were plans to trim pay raises for troops and benefits for retirees and to reduce production of coastal patrol ships.

The proposal to create another Base Realignment and Closure Commission - whose job is to select which facilities to close - prompted bipartisan criticism. Lawmakers asserted that the military facilities underpin a vital part of their local economies and help secure the country. They also contended that the country cannot afford the upfront costs required to shutter the sites.

“Having only last fall completed the implementation of the 2005 [base commission’s recommendations] it is abundantly clear that the costs . . . were far greater than predicted and that the annual savings were far smaller than expected,’’ said a joint statement from Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, both of New Hampshire. They cited a Government Accountability Office report that said the closures cost about $35 billion.

Several members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation declared the base proposal “dead on arrival.’’

Yet as the military begins shrinking after a decade of war, Congress may have little choice but to approve major cost-saving measures such as base closures. The $487 billion in cuts were part of a deal to raise the nation’s debt limit last summer.

“In this budget environment, we simply cannot sustain infrastructure that’s beyond our needs or ability to maintain,’’ Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon, saying base closures were needed “as soon as possible.’’

Several lawmakers are already laying the groundwork for a joint effort to save New England’s facilities, an early attempt to line up a powerful bloc that can overcome the fierce parochial battles that defined the previous five rounds. Hanscom, home to the Air Force’s Electronic Systems Center, emerged as one of the region’s largest facilities after previous rounds closed such sites as the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, and Loring Air Force Base in Maine.