Bush Endorses Base Closings

[David]

AP


President Bush on Thursday endorsed a plan for closing 22 major domestic military bases and reconfiguring 33 others, leaving their fate to Congress.

Mr. Bush had until Sept. 23 to either accept the report from an independent commission and send it to Congress, or return it to the commission for further work.

The report will become final in 45 days unless Congress acts to reject it in full.

Mr. Bush had previously said that "in order for the process to be nonpolitical" the decision of the nine-member Base Closure and Realignment Commission would stand. He had the option of rejecting the report altogether or sending it back to the commission for more changes.

In the report submitted to the president last Friday, the commission said its recommendations will result in annual savings of $4.2 billion, compared with $5.4 billion under the plan it received last May from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld had recommended closing 33 major bases and realigning 29 others.

On Monday, a Defense Department official said Rumsfeld had advised Bush that the plan presented to the White House last week would yield large savings, even though fewer bases would be closed than Rumsfeld wanted.

The base-closing commission differed with the Pentagon on several aspects of the financial implications of closures. For example, the commission said the Pentagon "routinely failed to properly account for" the added costs that would be incurred by non-military agencies that use a portion of a base that is being closed.