WASHINGTON -- Maryland lawmakers expect the state to escape the worst of the proposed military base closings to be announced by the Pentagon today, with only one Navy center in the state a possible target for closure.
Some bases, however, may face a scaling back of their activities even though they remain in operation.
"We have done the best we can to work all these issues," said Democratic Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, who has lobbied the military service chiefs and the Pentagon leadership to protect Maryland bases. "We have never let up on this thing."
Secretary of Defense William J. Perry will reveal today the bases he wants closed in order to bring the Pentagon's infrastructure -- its network of bases, depots, laboratories and research stations -- more closely into line with the overall reduction in military forces in the post-Cold War era.
While the military has shrunk 30 percent, only 15 percent of its installations have been closed.
On today's closure list, according to a report in the Washington Post yesterday, is expected to be the Naval Surface Warfare Center in White Oak, on the Montgomery and Prince George's County line. Pentagon officials refused to confirm the report yesterday.
The closure of White Oak would be a setback to efforts to revitalize economically depressed Silver Spring. Said Douglas M. Duncan, Montgomery County executive: "It would have a tremendous impact on the whole Silver Spring area of the county, which is in desperate need of more jobs and more tax base."
The White Oak naval center was preparing to expand later this year with the transfer of 3,800 jobs from the Naval Sea Systems Command in Crystal City, Va. That shift was ordered in the last base realignment two years ago, when Maryland military bases enjoyed a net gain of 5,000 jobs.
Noting that in 1991 White Oak was ordered to shrink its work force, then in 1993 ordered to expand, Mr. Duncan said: "Is it possible for local government to do any kind of planning if every two years this commission keeps jumping around and reversing itself?"
Said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, the Baltimore Democrat: "I'll fight tooth and nail for White Oak if it is recommended by the Pentagon for closure. I'm in my camouflage and fatigues and all set to go."
The Pentagon's new list is expected to include more than 20 major base closures and many more minor adjustments in base operations nationally. The list will be presented for review to the independent Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
The commission has until July 1 to forward its own recommendations to President Clinton. To avoid political tinkering, Mr. Clinton and then Congress must accept or reject the commission's recommendations in their entirety.
Although no major base closings are anticipated, some Maryland communities remained nervous yesterday that they could still lose jobs through the transfer of local base operations to other facilities.
"It would surprise me if there were not realignments," said Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, a Western Maryland Republican. He said community concern in the 6th Congressional District centered on possible loss of jobs at Fort Ritchie, part of the Army's Signals Command, located on a 638-acre site in the Catoctin Mountains near Cascade.
"It's a little base, but a little community, so it has a very big impact on this tiny, tiny community," said Mr. Bartlett. "So we are concerned."
Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that 137 jobs at the Army Publication Center at Middle River in Baltimore County could be at risk of being moved to a similar facility in St. Louis.
"We don't know what's going to happen," said the 2nd District Republican.
In Southern Maryland, Charles County business leaders have been working to prevent a shift of research programs from the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head to an out-of-state facility.
John H. Bloom, a retired county school superintendent who heads the activist group that is trying to protect the base's 2,600 jobs and $130 million yearly contribution to the local economy, said: "We had two objectives: One was to stay off the list; the other was to get off it if we were on it."
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Southern Maryland Democrat, said he was "optimistic, very optimistic" for continued operations at both Indian Head and the Patuxent River Naval Air Station -- which will employ 16,800 by 1998 under current expansion plans.