Portsmouth Area Community Members Prepare to Plead Their Case
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2005- The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s skilled workforce, along with its capability to protect the United States from attack, are two reasons the Pentagon should spare it in this year’s round of base closings, Maine and New Hampshire lawmakers said Tuesday.
The members of the two states’ congressional delegations spoke out during a meeting with community members who came to Washington to plead their case with Pentagon officials on Wednesday. The shipyard straddles the Maine-New Hampshire line.
The Base Realignment and Closure process is part of a 20-year effort to shut down military facilities deemed unnecessary in a post-Cold War world. Base closings saved the government $17 billion by 2001 and were expected to save $7 billion annually thereafter, according to a March 2003 Defense Department report.
While the economic impact on the region of closing the shipyard would be huge, according to congressional staff members who attended the Tuesday meeting,. the base’s military value and other policy issues are even more important. The shipyard, they said,- routinely works up to 50 percent faster and 50 percent cheaper than the private shipyards that have been getting increased amounts of work under the Bush administration, and this would save taxpayers money at a time when the Defense Department is looking to cut costs.
“It’s an easy case to make, but we have to make it over and over again, and that’s what we’re doing,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said.
Collins also noted the role the yard could play in homeland security and said it was “short-sighted” to reduce naval facilities at a time when countries such as China were building up their navies.
The opportunities for increased homeland security, as well as the capacity to increase the number of shipyard employees fivefold are assets for the shipyard, which is already efficient but still has room to grow, Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) said after the meeting.
Retired Navy Capt. William McDonough, a former commander of the shipyard and now a spokesman for the Seacoast Shipyard Association, said he was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with a deputy assistant Navy secretary and a deputy Defense undersecretary but knows they will not “make a commitment” to the group. Several Portsmouth city officials also will attend the Wednesday meeting.
The congressional delegations have been meeting on the shipyard’s future every two weeks for the past two years and have sent more than 20 letters to Pentagon officials. Each member of the delegation will now be calling Pentagon decision-makers to make the case for not closing Portsmouth.
In 2004, the shipyard employed more than 4,800 civilian workers, with a payroll of $318 million, according to an economic impact report from the Seacoast Shipyard Association.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to submit a list of proposed base closings to a base-closing commission by May 16. The panel will then submit its recommendations to President Bush, who must approve or disapprove the recommendations in their entirety by Sept. 23. Congress, in turn, must approve or disapprove the entire list.
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