BRAC panel, lawmakers visit New England bases

The Maine and Connecticut congressional delegations are taking the fight to save major military bases in their states to their home turf Tuesday and Wednesday when members of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission head to New England to evaluate the Pentagon's recommendations to shutter the installations.

The site visits are likely the only time commissioners will tour the massive facilities before submitting their recommendations to the White House Sept. 8.

Connecticut's New London Submarine Base and Maine's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard are among the largest installations to make Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's base-closure list. With about 15,000 military and civilian jobs at stake in both states, the site visits have become a top priority for lawmakers in Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire, which would be affected by the closure of the Portsmouth shipyard.

Congressional delegations and state lawmakers will accompany commissioners on part of the base tours and then meet with them privately, said spokesmen for the delegations.

The visits are intended to fill in the details of base missions and the potential impact of the Defense Department's recommendations on the military and local community. This is the only on-site look at the installations, making the base tour a particularly crucial piece of the BRAC process.

"Obviously, it's very beneficial [and] very important if it's done right," said Paul Hirsch, a BRAC lobbyist for Madison Government Affairs and a staffer on the 1991 commission. "It can be the kiss of death if they don't do it right."

Aside from the site visit, the BRAC commission will hold a regional public hearing July 6 in Boston for New London, Portsmouth and other area bases.

BRAC Chairman Anthony Principi will visit both sites, while retired Air Force Gen. Lloyd Newton, former Pentagon official Philip Coyle, and former Rep. James Bilbray, D-Nev., also will tour the New London base. Only Newton will accompany Principi to Portsmouth, the smaller of the two installations. Newton is from Connecticut, potentially giving the sub base a hometown advocate on the commission.

Several commissioners appear concerned about the Pentagon's decision to close the Connecticut base. During public hearings earlier this month, Principi and others quizzed Navy officials on what alternatives they considered when weighing whether to close the facility, a decision that would affect 8,500 jobs at the base. They also questioned how much closing the base would cost and how much it would save. Principi said he was particularly concerned that plans to move thousands of jobs to Kings Bay Submarine Base, Ga., would flood the community and overwhelm its already-stressed infrastructure.