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Ohio leaders preparing defense of bases amidst closures

The president’s budget is expected to call for two rounds of base closures.

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By Jessica Wehrman, Washington Bureau Updated 10:59 AM Friday, February 10, 2012

WASHINGTON — Days before President Barack Obama releases a budget expected to call for two rounds of military base closures within the next five years, the Ohio delegation has begun coordinating how to spare Ohio bases.

Obama, as part of his fiscal 2013 budget, is expected to call for base closure rounds to begin in 2013 and 2015. If Congress agrees, the process, aimed at helping to shore up a massive federal deficit, would require a commission to make recommendations on which bases to close and which to realign. Congress would then review the list.

Early indications show Wright-Patterson Air Force Base may actually gain some intelligence and surveillance work under the president’s budget.

In all, the state’s military installations support some 43,950 jobs, according to materials compiled by the state’s congressional delegation, including 27,000 at Wright Patterson. Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base and the Defense Supply Center Columbus combined support about 9,200 jobs, according to the materials.

During the last round, in 2005, Wright-Patterson — the state’s only active duty military base — gained new missions.

But with federal law calling for a minimum of $487 billion in cuts over the next decade, lawmakers worry that the state could bear the brunt of at least some of them.

“The expectation is if we’re prepared, we’ll end up with better outcomes for the community and the military,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who organized a meeting of the state’s congressional delegation Thursday. “Today we started the process.”

The state’s delegation is already worried about President Obama’s budget, which will include the elimination of aircraft at the Mansfield Air National Guard Base and cuts to the fleet at Rickenbacker.

Last week, the Air Force announced plans to retire six of the 18 KC-135 tankers at Rickenbacker and four C-27J cargo planes in Mansfield.

Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, said the group, which also included Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland and Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, hope to apply lessons learned during the 2005 base closure process to future rounds of base closures.

“We need to put a plan together as a delegation,” he said.

To protect the state’s bases, Portman said, the delegation will need to rally community support, take a thorough inventory of the value of the state’s military bases, and make plans for how to proceed when legislation proposing base closures comes to Congress.

“We aren’t competing with one another,” Portman said. “We’re working as a team.”

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