Senate Approves Funding for Two Seawolf Submarines Opposed by Bush

The Senate voted yesterday to preserve funding for two nuclear-powered Seawolf attack submarines that President Bush wants to scrap as part of his plan to cut $7.8 billion in "pork barrel" spending to reduce the deficit.

The vote marked a victory for Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who have lobbied vigorously to save the submarine construction, which provides thousands of jobs at General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat Division in Groton, Conn. But the 52 to 46 vote is far smaller than the two-thirds majority required to override a threatened presidential veto.

Electric Boat is constructing the first of the SSN-21 class, which has received funding. The Navy planned more than 20 of the $2 billion attack boats. The vote also underscores the growing reluctance of Congress to reduce the military despite the end of the Cold War because of its fear of killing more jobs or giving up any military techological advantages.

"This is more than a Connecticut issue," Dodd said during floor debate. "I would never make the argument to my colleagues {to save the submarines} if jobs were the only argument."

Six weeks ago, Bush challenged Congress to cut $7.8 billion of what he called largely pork barrel spending in a number of areas in the current budget. Among these so-called rescissions were nearly $3 billion in the defense portion of the budget to complete two of the three planned Seawolf submarines. The administration says the submarines have become unnecessary since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The Senate Appropriations Committee responded last week with its package of such cuts that would reduce overall spending by about $425 million more than the president proposed. But the package would preserve the two submarines by ordering cuts in spending for the B-2 "stealth" bomber and the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The White House warned yesterday that the president would veto the legislation unless Congress goes along with his proposed defense cuts, a point underscored by Bush during an hour-long meeting yesterday on Capitol Hill with Senate Republicans.

"Cutting critical programs in not a viable alternative to eliminating unnecessary programs such as the Seawolf submarine, M-1 tank conversion, F-14 aircraft modification and reducing unnecessary National Guard and Reserve equipment funding," the Office of Management and Budget said in a letter to Senate leaders.

The House's $5.8 billion version of the rescissions bill, which awaits action later this week, would save one of the two submarines the president wants to eliminate.

House and Senate critics of the president's plan contend that it would cost the government an estimated $500 million to $1 billion more to cancel production of the two submarines than to complete them. Moreover, critics warned, cancellation of the submarines would force the closing of Electric Boat, one of the nations's two submarine builders.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) led the effort to kill the two submarines, arguing that they have become unnecessary in the post-Cold War era and that whatever economic benefit enjoyed by Connecticut would come at the expense of other states with defense contracts that would be cut to preserve Seawolf spending.

However, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) warned that canceling the project would jeopardize the jobs of 21,000 workers at Electric Boat and would impair the military's capability of responding to unforeseen military conflicts, such as the Persian Gulf War.

"Yes, it's true the Soviet Union is no more and the Warsaw Pact is no more, but we have regional conflict," said Inouye, chairman of the Appropriations defense subcommittee. "We thought that {Iraqi President} Saddam Hussein was our friend in 1990, and look where it led us."

Forty-five Democrats and seven Republicans voted against McCain's amendment to kill all funding for the two submarines. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) was the only area senator to vote to kill the funding.