Category: Dennis Mayer
Shipyard’s Future Uncertain as BRAC Nears
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 – Retired Navy Capt. William McDonough has been involved with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for more than 30 years, but with another round of base closures scheduled for next year he does not know how long the facility has left.
“We’re not cautiously optimistic, but we’re not pessimistic, either,” said McDonough, president of the Save our Shipyard association. “We should be in good shape, but the risk is there. It’s a frustrating experience because we go through this periodically.”
McDonough, who commanded the facility from 1974 to 1979 and has lived in the area since retiring from the Navy, has witnessed rounds of base closures – known as Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC – in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995. The program, designed to trim military excess that was unnecessary in a post-Cold War world, closed 97 bases throughout those four rounds. In at least one of those rounds, in 1995, Portsmouth was considered seriously for closure.
For the military, closing unnecessary bases saves money, though not right away, since closing a base usually means spending a large amount of money on cleaning up the facility. Nevertheless, the base-closing process had saved the government $17 billion by 2001, and would save $7 billion annually after that, according to a March 2003 report by the Department of Defense.
That same report estimated that the military currently has about 24 percent excess capacity that should be eliminated, a central motivating factor behind the cuts scheduled to take place next year (see timeline). But what are Portsmouth’s chances of being in the 76 percent of bases that remain?
Owen Cote, associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program, said he wasn’t sure Portsmouth, or the Navy’s other shipyards, would be considered part of that excess capacity.
“In theory, it’s possible Portsmouth is vulnerable, . but once such a facility closes, you’ll never get one like it again,” Cote said.
The Navy currently has four shipyards – Portsmouth, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – that perform upkeep and maintenance on the Navy’s surface and submarine fleet. Most construction projects are now contracted out to two private shipyards, in Groton, Conn. and Newport News, Va.
Portsmouth specializes in servicing Los-Angeles class submarines, a mid-sized attack submarine first deployed in 1976 that now forms the backbone of the Navy’s attack submarine fleet – out of 55 attack subs currently deployed, 53 are Los Angeles-class.
According to Cote, with its license to service nuclear subs and its expertise in the Los Angeles-class submarines, the Portsmouth shipyard is a “niche” facility that should be relatively safe so long as there are nuclear subs to service.
He admitted that the base was probably not receiving a full workload, but discounted the importance of that, saying, “If there’s some kind of surge requirement, it’s good to have a bit of leeway.”
Cote said he expected Air Force facilities, and especially Air National Guard units that share facilities with local civilian airports, to bear the brunt of this round of base closures.
Jack Spencer, a base realignment expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, wasn’t so sure a facility like Portsmouth would be completely safe, since there are four shipyards and a shrinking fleet.
“Instead of having two places that can do the same thing, you have one base to do one thing,” he said.
Spencer cautioned against relying entirely on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s “do more with less” mantra to understand the process, but agreed it played a role in realignment’s ultimate goal, especially where construction is concerned.
He said this round of cuts was different from previous rounds because this round, while designed to save money, is also aimed at streamlining the military from a Cold War-era industrial machine to “a more agile and flexible force” better suited to fighting terrorism around the world.
He also said that unlike previous years, this round would be less susceptible to political pressure to save individual bases. He said communities who believed their bases were in danger should focus more on what they could do to survive if their base was closed.
“The bases people fight to take off the table . are probably those that would be eliminated anyway,” he said.
Portsmouth’s survival in past rounds indicates it may again be able to dodge closure because of the nature of work performed there.
According to the Defense Department’s 1995 base-closing report, Portsmouth was seriously considered for closure but was spared because naval officials were unsure how successful their new Seawolf submarine program would be. Seawolf-class submarines were designed to be quieter, faster and better armed than the Los Angeles-class ships, and were poised to supplant them as the standard U.S. naval attack submarines. However, the Navy wanted to keep its options open, realizing that the Los Angeles-class subs would become important if the Navy’s need for submarines increased, or if the Seawolf program was discontinued.
That decision was prescient, since the Seawolf program was cut dramatically: The U.S.S. Seawolf was deployed in 1997, but since then only one has been commissioned, with a third scheduled for 2007. Los Angeles-class submarines have remained the Navy’s submarine of choice.
The main danger Portsmouth faces is its diminishing workload. According to McDonough, the shipyard association president, the shipyard will soon run out of Los Angeles-class submarine refueling jobs, because the second half of submarines produced in that class were made with “lifetime” reactors that would last however long the boat was in service.
Once the refueling jobs are gone, the shipyard will still have routine maintenance and overhauls to perform, but its workload would be diminished.
“The workload is going down, we become increasingly vulnerable,” he said.
The shipyard also has to compete with the private sector. New construction jobs have gone down in recent years, and as a result contractors have started to get the maintenance jobs that used to be the public shipyards’ domain, a trend that troubles McDonough.
“Our administration has an obsession with turning over work to the private sector,” he said. “I have trouble understanding the feeling behind that.”
“It’s the same money,” he said, but the government loses both control over the process and the benefit of naval expertise.
One way the base could increase its future workload and buttress its chances of staying open would be outfitting its facilities to service the next generation of submarines.
For example the Virginia-class submarine is another improvement on the Los Angeles-class design. The first ship in this class, the USS Virginia, was commissioned this October, and at least five more are planned (two are under construction and scheduled to be delivered to the Navy by 2006). Those submarines will need maintenance. Portsmouth is already scheduled to perform the first scheduled maintenance session on theVirginia in 2010.
But first, the shipyard will have to survive this latest round of cuts. In the end, its chances of doing that are anyone’s guess.
BRAC TIMELINE:
The Department of Defense is collecting and analyzing data for the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process. Here’s how that process will work:
February 2005: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will submit to Congress any changes in base-closing standards.
March 15, 2005: President Bush will send to the Senate a list of nine nominees to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which will analyze Secretary Rumsfeld’s base closure recommendations.
May 16, 2005: Rumsfeld will submit his closure and realignment recommendations to the commission and congressional defense committees. The information also will be published in the Federal Register.
July 1, 2005: The Comptroller General will report to the congressional defense committees on the economic impact of Rumsfeld’s recommendations.
Sept. 8, 2005: The base-closure commission will report to the President on its analysis of Rumsfeld’s closure and realignment recommendations.
Sept. 25, 2005: Bush will announce whether he approves or disapproves of the commission’s recommendations. If he approves, Congress has 45 legislative days to issue a joint resolution of disapproval or the recommendations become law. (Congress can only accept or reject the recommendations together; it cannot change the recommendation on separate closures.)
Oct. 20, 2005: The base-closure commission must submit a revised report to Bush if he disapproves of the first.
Nov. 7, 2005: Bush must approve the revised list of base closures, or the process ends. If he approves a revised list, Congress has 45 legislative days to issue a joint resolution of disapproval or the recommendations become law.
Source: Department of Defense BRAC website (http://www.dod.gov/BRAC)
N.H. Woman Settles Into Capitol Hill Job
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2004 - Three days into her new job as Rep. Jeb Bradley's press secretary, Stephanie DuBois was settling into life at her new desk, which was pressed against a wall in a five-by-seven room that looked more like a closet than the communications center of a congressional office.
"This is where the magic happens," she said, laughing, of her unassuming new surroundings.
A couple of picture frames and an average assortment of office supplies had been arranged around her computer screen, which she'd set up as she liked it. Her BlackBerry - the wallet-sized wireless device that congressional staffers use outside of the office to keep track of their e-mail - was charging on its stand, waiting for use.
On a ledge, a box of her new business cards sat next to a box of her old ones, the ones that list her old job - deputy press secretary, based out of Bradley's Manchester office.
Her new job includes, but is not limited to, composing press releases about Bradley's work and opinions on various legislation, writing speeches and dealing with inquiries from reporters.
"It's a big move," she said of the new position. "It's something I've always aspired to."
The job is also one known for its difficulties. Aside from the long hours that all congressional staffers work, press secretaries work under the added pressure of being their boss's public voice - a position that subjects them to scrutiny and speculation. Presidential press secretaries have a half-joking tradition of passing down a flak jacket from one secretary to the next, and while congressional press secretaries are not in the spotlight as much as their White House counterparts, the sentiment is similar.
DuBois said she's ready for the job, though, and after her first few weeks in Bradley's office - in which Congress passed a spending bill to fund the federal government next year and worked out a compromise on an intelligence bill - she said she was excited to be part of the lawmaking process.
"I think I've been warned about everything," she said. "The job is challenging, but I thrive on challenges."
DuBois grew up in Goffstown, N.H., the older of two daughters of a 25-year veteran of the police department and a graphics art designer. She said growing up with a father on the police force was fun because the other officers became an extended family for her and her sister as they grew up.
"It's a tight-knit group," she said of the department.
Frank McBride, the principal of Goffstown High School, where DuBois graduated in 1998, said he wasn't at all surprised that DuBois got into politics.
"You can't find enough people like her to get into it," he said.
McBride met DuBois when he was a U.S. History teacher and she was a 17-year-old junior.
"She was clearly at the time one of the most prepared, thorough" students in the class, he said, adding that she displayed a unique blend of "type-A" organizational skills and creativity.
DuBois took those skills to Providence College, where she majored in political science and interned in then-Sen. Bob Smith's office. Her experience there convinced her she might want to consider a career in politics, and after graduating in 2002, she took a job with the New Hampshire State Republican Party.
Jayne Millerick was working for the party as a consultant at the time, and worked with DuBois on the party's get-out-the-vote operation in the three days leading up to the election. (That year, Republicans Craig Benson and John Sununu won the governorship and a U.S. Senate seat, respectively, and Bradley won the U.S. House seat that Sununu gave up for his Senate bid.)
"She does a great job of working with volunteers and supporters of the party," Millerick said. "She has a really stick-to-it attitude."
After that election, DuBois took the deputy press secretary job in Bradley's office.
Jeff Rose, who was then Bradley's district director, was impressed with Dubois.
"I thought she had a very strong work ethic and brought a great amount of creativity to the position," said Rose, who is now the legislative director at Nashua-based BAE Systems.
DuBois also can count her New Hampshire upbringing as a positive, Rose said, because she understands the "values and virtues" of the state and its people.
DuBois said she's excited to be in Washington - she's already seen the botanical gardens and several of the Smithsonian museums. However, she said she still misses her home state.
"I love New Hampshire, and I think eventually I'd like to make my way back up there," she said.
N.H. Delegation Sees Quick Lame Duck
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 - New Hampshire's congressional delegation expects a quick and easy lame-duck session when Congress reconvenes next week to take care of pending legislation.
During the session, so called because congressmen who were not re-elected will attend, Congress needs to act on the nine of the 13 spending bills that have not passed. Congress also is expected to raise the federal government's debt ceiling, currently set at $7.4 trillion, which was reached last month. Legislators also may pass an intelligence reform bill that would reorganize the intelligence community and create a national intelligence director. A conference committee is currently working to reconcile the different versions of the bill passed by the Senate and the House.
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said he hoped that Congress would quickly finish its work.
"We have to pass a debt ceiling and an appropriations bill, which we should be able to do without a lot of controversy, and it would be nice to get the intelligence bill, done," Gregg told reporters in a conference call.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., one of the legislators trying to hammer out a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the intelligence overhaul, said he expected action on the appropriations bills, but that the intelligence bill had only a "50-50" chance of passing, due to a "small but vocal minority" of House conferees who disagree with the spending powers the Senate version of the bill would bestow on the new intelligence director.
Sununu added that he thought the debt ceiling needed to be adjusted, and that he expected a measure to pass.
"I think that will be addressed without much fanfare," he said.
Congressman Charlie Bass, R-2 nd District, said he expected that during the lame-duck session, the Republican leadership would focus on organizing the 109 th Congress, which will convene in January.
"That's going to take a lot of time and attention from the leadership," he said.
As such, he said he expected that most pending legislation, including the intelligence bill, would be deferred, especially considering that the Republicans will have a bigger majority next term in both houses.
The situation of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who lost his re-election bid to John Thune on Nov. 2, makes any significant legislative action even less likely, Bass said.
"How is the Senate going to operate with a minority leader being a lame duck?" he said.
Bass said he expected that Congress would pass a debt ceiling, and a "continuing resolution" that would provide for the government to continue operating with spending at fiscal 2004 levels. Congress already passed such a resolution - the new fiscal year actually started October 1, and a continuing resolution has kept the government running since then. That resolution expires on Nov. 20, and will need to be extended for any appropriation bills that do not pass, or the federal government will shut down.
Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-1 st District, said he thought most of the work done in the lame-duck session would be on the intelligence bill, and that a resolution of the differences between the two bills was possible.
"There are some differences between the House and the Senate" versions, he said. "Everything I'm hearing is that the conference committees have been working to resolve them."
Jeb Bradley Holds Incumbent Advangtage
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - This election cycle, Rep. Jeb Bradley is learning that incumbency has its advantages.
"I think the biggest advantage is name recognition," said the first term Republican. "People know who you are, and hopefully, if you do your job well, it helps."
Bradley enjoys a substantial lead over his opponent, Portsmouth lawyer Justin Nadeau, according to recent polling. An Oct. 6 University of New Hampshire poll said Bradley led Nadeau, 58 to 25 percent, and a Franklin Pierce College poll put Bradley's lead at 64 to 26 percent.
While Bradley said he hadn't been in Congress long enough to know for sure what kind of overall effect incumbency can have on fundraising, it has had a clear positive affect in his campaign.
According to records filed with the Federal Election Commission, Bradley has received $925,000 as of Sept. 30. Individuals have contributed $486,000, political action committees have given $427,000, and other politician's committees have contributed $104,000. Going into the final month of the campaign, he had $326,000 on-hand to spend on his re-election campaign.
In the same period, Nadeau raised $589,000, including a $374,000 loan the candidate made to his own campaign, according to FEC filings. Nadeau also received $166,000 from individual contributions and $48,000 from political action committees. Though, as of Sept. 30, he only had $14,000 on hand.
Bradley was once the candidate who had to loan his campaign money to remain competitive. In 2002, while running for the House seat that John Sununu left open in his successful Senate bid, Bradley loaned his own campaign $355,000. That money, combined with the $315,000 in individual contributions, $369,000 in contributions from political action committees, and $106,000 from other politician's committees added up to $1.06 million.
Bradley said it was "definitely" helpful to not have to personally loan his campaign money. According to the FEC filings, his campaign still owes him $333,000 for the money he loaned it in 2002.
Money isn't always the deciding factor in these elections. Bradley's opponent in 2002, Democrat Martha Fuller Clark, spent more than three times as much as Bradley, raising $3.53 million (including $1.58 million she loaned her own campaign). She nonetheless lost the election, 58 to 38 percent.
Money is only one form of capital in a political campaign, according to Steve Marchand, Nadeau's campaign director. He said the strength of a campaign should also be measured by the volunteer manpower the campaign can command.
"Every day we make decisions. What do you do with the money you have? What do you do with the people you have? What do you do with the 24 hours you have?" he said.
He said Nadeau's campaign has been working to "communicate our message in an on-the-ground way," through grassroots campaigning.
"It's effective, and it's the best use of our resources," he said.
N.H. Ahead of Curve on Drug Re-Imports
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 - With rising health care costs a major issue facing legislators, many members of Congress have considered re-importing low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other countries as an option to reduce costs.
New Hampshire's congressmen are no exception.
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sponsored a plan that would legalize re-importing prescription drugs and allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the re-imports.
In a June press release announcing the bill, Gregg stressed its safety aspect.
"We cannot take the fast and furious approach to this issue," he said of the bill, called the Safe IMPORT Act. "Patients should not be forced to trade safety for affordability."
Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., who introduced Gregg's bill in the House, said the focus of his and Gregg's efforts was to regulate re-importation to make it safer.
"I always have said that I support safe re-importation," Bradley said in a phone interview last week. "We have to do it in such a way to ensure that what Americans are getting is the real thing, not counterfeit."
The re-importation of drugs is an ambiguous legal issue. There is no law expressly prohibiting or permitting it.
Gregg's bill is not the first attempt by a legislator to officially legalize prescription drug re-importation. Similar bills have either been voted down or Congress took no action. One such bill, sponsored by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), has, like Gregg's bill, been referred to committee.
Bradley said he and others have voted against similar bills because they didn't give the FDA enough power to regulate the international sales. For instance, previous bills did not provide for ways to regulate Internet pharmacies.
Neither Bradley's nor Gregg's bill has been acted on since being referred to committee. With the current backlog of appropriations and security legislation in both chambers, there will be no time for legislators to act on the bills before the end of the 108th Congress this year.
Bradley said, however, that he was looking forward to reintroducing the bill in Congress next session.
Gregg spokeswoman Erin Rath said Gregg, too, would return to the issue next session.
"This is a problem that is not going away and that we must get a handle on, so yes, I expect Sen. Gregg will introduce something next year," she said. "The issue is very complex, and with everything going on in the wrap-up of this session of Congress, we ran out of time to build consensus on both sides of the Hill."
Bradley's opponent in the Nov. 2 general election, Portsmouth lawyer Justin Nadeau, supports prescription drug re-importation. Gregg's opponent, 95-year-old campaign finance reform activist Doris "Granny D" Haddock, accuses Gregg of supporting the program so that the government won't have to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies, an action she says Gregg wants to avoid.
Both Bradley and Gregg enjoy comfortable leads over their Democratic opponents, according to separate polls conducted by Franklin Pierce College and the University of New Hampshire for WMUR-TV.
Doctors are wary of providing low-priced prescription drugs without first ensuring that the drugs are safe, according to a statement provided by the American Medical Association from former AMA President Dr. Donald J. Palmisano.
"Patient safety must remain the overriding concern in any discussion on drug re-importation," Palmisano said. "Any new drug re-importation law, regulation or state initiative must assure that these re-imported drugs are approved by the FDA for sale to America's patients."
According to Palmisano's statement, the AMA is studying mechanisms for safe re-importation of prescription drugs. The results of this study are scheduled to be announced in December.
In the meantime, re-imported prescription drugs are a reality in New Hampshire, due in large part to the state's close proximity to the Canadian border.
The state Department of Health and Human Services doesn't track state residents who buy prescription drugs from Canada, said Greg Moore, a department spokesman.
But Patti Stolte, director of the Coos County ServiceLink in Berlin, said that buying prescription drugs from Canada was "very prevalent" among the senior citizens she advises, especially since many travel to Canada regularly for other business.
"If they are active and able to travel, a lot of them are getting [prescription drugs] there," she said.
Gov. Craig Benson on his Website offers links to Canadian Internet pharmacies, along with safety guidelines for using them. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Benson, said that one of the online pharmacies linked to the governor's Website, CanadaDrugs.com, received 394 new New Hampshire-based patients in the four months after the link went up in April - a 400 percent increase in new patients from the state from the four-month period before that.
Smith said that he didn't believe the practice was illegal and that constituents have responded positively to Benson's progressive views on it.
"It's been an issue that has united people," he said, adding that polling has suggested that nearly 80 percent of New Hampshire residents support legalized prescription drug re-importation.
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Patenaude One Step Closer to Top Hud Job
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - A New Hampshire woman came one step closer Tuesday to assuming a top post at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Pamela Hughes Patenaude, a former Bedford resident whom President Bush has nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and Development, testified that she would work with Congress to help end homelessness and encourage home ownership in a hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
"I am committed to continuing HUD's work that will one day make the American Dream equally accessible to all," she said in a prepared statement to open her testimony. "I share the President's commitment to homeownership, because I too believe that ownership is the key to stronger, healthier communities and financial independence."
Two members of New Hampshire's congressional delegation, Sen. John Sununu and Rep. Jeb Bradley, were present for the hearing, and both spoke glowingly of Patenaude's abilities.
"Pam has brings great experience to this job and this opportunity," said Sununu, who sits on the committee.
Sen. Judd Gregg was unable to attend the hearing, but Sununu said he conveyed Gregg's support for Patenaude as well as his own.
After the hearing, Sununu said that Patenaude's appointment would be "great for HUD and community development efforts across the entire country."
In a short statement to the committee, Bradley said that his office had vetted Patenaude and found her to be an "exceptional" nominee.
"I'm thrilled to be here," Bradley said before the hearing. "She's a great candidate."
Bradley added that he'd been assured that the committee would work to have Patenaude's nomination confirmed by the Senate as soon as possible.
After her statement, Patenaude fielded questions from committee members, but her nomination was clearly not controversial or contested.
Patenaude's nomination will now go to the Senate floor, where senators will vote to confirm it. Cathy MacFarlane, a HUD spokeswoman, said she was not sure whether the Senate would vote on Patenaude's nomination before Congress recesses for the general election.
Gregg Describes Debate Prep
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON, Sep. 27 -- Crawford, Texas, is “a lot different than New Hampshire,” said Sen. Judd Gregg.
“It’s different than what I thought -- looks a lot like the African savannah.”
Gregg has spent a lot of time in Crawford recently. The Republican senator has been playing the role of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to help President George W. Bush prepare for Thursday night’s presidential debate on national security issues with Democratic nominee Kerry. Gregg’s job is to learn Kerry’s positions and then debate Bush based on them – a job that he jokingly claims is harder than it seems because Kerry often takes “two or three positions” on any given issue.
Gregg is used to sparring with Bush by now. He played Al Gore in practice debates with Bush in 2000, a role he was tapped for after running Bush’s primary campaign in New Hampshire and because he had played Gore in 1996 to help prepare then-vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp for his debates with then-Vice President Gore.
“We’re comfortable with each other,” Gregg said, adding that he plans to continue playing Kerry for Bush’s campaign for the rest of the campaign season.
Since Gregg had such strong ties to the Bush debate preparation, he declined to elaborate on Bush’s strategy for the debates.
Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) said the first debate would be about which candidate can make the American people feel safer. Whichever candidate can do that will win the debate, he said.
He expected Kerry to try to paint Bush’s Iraq policy as a “failure” by focusing on specific problems in Iraq.
Bass said that Bush, on the other hand, will try to focus on the bigger principles of the Iraq war and its role in America’s war on terror. At the same time, Bass said, he expected Bush to point out any inconsistencies in Kerry’s voting record on national security.
Bass’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 2 election, Paul Hodes, said the debates will be a “tremendous opportunity” for Kerry to present himself as a clear alternative to Bush.
Hodes said that while Bush is a “master of style,” Kerry is a “master of substance,” and that Kerry should try to pin Bush down on facts and not let him “skate by” with “easy quips and sound bites.”
Jennifer Donahue, senior political analyst for the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, said that in most debates, the incumbent adopts a defensive position while the challenger attacks the incumbent’s record. She said she expects this debate to be the same, with Bush defending his actions in Iraq and Kerry telling the audience what Bush did wrong and what he would have done differently.
According to Donahue, the key for Bush will be to know his facts on everything – “from the price of milk to the cost of a gun in Iraq,” she said – so that he will be able to effectively defend his policies and spending.
Kerry, on the other hand, will have to define himself to voters, since as the challenger, he is somewhat of an unknown quantity to the national electorate.
“It’s the first time the public will be fully focused and engaged on the election,” she said, adding that for Kerry, a “win” would be “creating a strong impression of who he is and what he would do for the country.”
Donahue said the debate’s rigid format makes it difficult for the public to get a real sense of the candidates..
Thursday night’s debate at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla, the first of three scheduled between the candidates, will begin at 9 p.m., and will last 90 minutes. Jim Lehrer, the anchor and executive editor of PBS’s The NewsHour, will moderate.
The second debate, a town hall-style meeting in which “soft supporters” of both candidates will be given a chance to ask prescreened questions of the candidates, will be Friday, Oct. 8, in St. Louis and moderated by Charles Gibson of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
A third debate, in which the candidates will primarily address domestic issues, is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 15, at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz, and will be moderated by Bob Schieffer, CBS News’s chief Washington correspondent and the moderator of Face the Nation.
A vice-presidential debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 5. It will take place at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and will be moderated by Gwen Ifill, moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week.”
N.H. Delegation Works to Save Shipyard
By Dennis Mayer
WASHINGTON - With sweeping military base closings scheduled for review in 2005, New Hampshire and Maine’s congressional delegations are taking steps to protect Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
The base closure program, called the Base Realignment and Closure process, is designed to save money by closing bases the Defense Department determines are no longer necessary. While base closings can be expensive, the process eventually trims a significant portion of the defense budget.
The Pentagon has not released a “target” number of bases to close or dollars to save in this round of closures, but a report released in March estimated that overall, U.S. military bases have 24 percent more capacity than needed.
The New Hampshire and Maine congressional delegations want to ensure that Portsmouth’s shipyard is not among that excess.
The delegations have taken special care to create a “unified front” as they fight for the base, which employs 4,300 civilians, so that the Navy realizes that support from the base stretches across both state and party lines, Margo Shideler, press secretary for Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), said
Erin Rath, communications director for Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), said in an email that the effort to lobby the Pentagon was “an ongoing effort and one that the members are devoting a lot of time to.”
Sen. Gregg said in a statement, “I continue to actively work with my Senate and House colleagues from New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts in a united effort to demonstrate to officials at the Pentagon that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is invaluable to our military infrastructure, and critical to our national defense.”
“I believe these efforts are well received by the Pentagon,” Gregg said.
In large part, the congressmen have focused on lobbying the Department of Defense to consider the shipyard favorably. The New Hampshire and Maine delegations toured the facility in August with Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, meet regularly with shipyard advocates in Portsmouth, and have written several letters to the Department of Defense on the shipyard’s behalf.
The delegations outlined several areas in which the shipyard adds significantly to the nation’s defense efforts in an April letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Defense Undersecretary Michael Wynne. These areas included the shipyard’s expertise in submarine maintenance, certification in nuclear repair, performance record, adaptability and willingness to create partnerships with private and public entities. Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. John F. Tierney also signed the letter. (The delegations published an op-ed piece outlining these same points on March 22, 2004 in the Portsmouth Herald.)
Another letter from the two delegations, sent on Sept. 13 to assistant Navy Secretary Wayne Arney, outlined concerns the delegations had with the base closing process, urging him to consider the base’s potential. They argued that the base’s current output is dictated by its current mission, and does not reflect its full potential. They also urged evaluators to consider the quality of the work performed at the base and the base’s ability to work “within budget and schedule restraints.”
Shideler, Rep. Bass’s press secretary, said the Navy had not yet given Bass or the other members of his delegation an idea of how it was leaning in the decision process.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard primarily overhauls Los Angeles class nuclear submarines, according to a fact sheet provided by the shipyard,. Portsmouth has been open since 1800, making it the oldest such facility in the nation, and is one of four remaining naval shipyards in the nation. Along with the 4,300 civilians, it employs 125 naval officers and enlisted personnel, and serves as the home base for three Coast Guard cutters.
Rumsfeld’s recommendations for base closures are due to the base closing commission by May 16, 2005. That group will report on those recommendations to the president by Sept. 8, 2005. The president will then have until Sept. 23, 2005 to accept or reject them. If he signs off, Congress will have 45 days to reject them or they will be finalized.
Debbie White, a spokeswoman for the shipyard, declined to speculate on the shipyard’s future.
