NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, April 21, 2005

Story Continues Below

  The Pentagon says it needs the money by the beginning of May to pay for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senators were plowing through a slew of amendments in hopes of finishing their work Wednesday. But an afternoon debate over the Pentagon's plan to retire one of the country's dozen carriers was likely to push the final vote on the overall spending plan to Thursday.

Lawmakers say the USS John F. Kennedy, based in Florida and commissioned in 1968, is the candidate because of its age and the fact that it's only one of two conventionally operated carriers left in a fleet of mostly nuclear-powered vessels. The plan to shut down a carrier was included in the president's budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The carrier plan has become a high-stakes, highly political fight on Capitol Hill.

Democrats and Republicans, mainly those with carriers based in their states, accuse Pentagon officials of wanting to scrap a carrier solely to absorb budget cuts, and they worry that the move could adversely affect national security. Pentagon officials say the Navy can perform the same functions with 11 carriers, although Navy officers have expressed reservations.

Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former secretary of the Navy, said the Pentagon had projected needing all 12 carriers until December when budget cuts were ordered. Five carriers are based at the Norfolk port in his home state.

"Then, with a flick of the wrist and some very brief analysis that I've seen, out she went," Warner said. "It was driven by the budget."

Warner's amendment requires the Pentagon to maintain the current fleet until it finishes reviewing its force structure and ensures that the United States can base a nuclear-powered carrier in the Pacific.

Supporters called scaling back the fleet shortsighted while the United States is at war, China is building up its Navy and threats are emerging from other Pacific rim countries.

The Senate's Republican leadership and GOP Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, chairman of the defense subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, opposed the amendment. "We do not have the money to keep the Kennedy," he said.

Stevens said shutting down the Kennedy, which is nearly 40 years old, would save $1.2 billion between 2006 and 2011. "It's expensive for the Navy and it has marginal capability," he said.

The Senate also added $320 million for food assistance for Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and western Africa, bringing the total in the bill to $470 million.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Editor's note: