Sherman Fights for Naval Base Ventura County

Congressman Brad Sherman today urged a commission reviewing Pentagon plans for military base consolidation to stop an "impractical" shift of thousands of jobs from a Navy installation at Point Magu to China Lake.

"It does not make logistical or economic sense," Sherman said of the proposed transfer of weapons and electronic warfare functions from Naval Base Ventura County to the Naval Air Weapons Station located 150 miles away at China Lake.

The shift would affect more than 6,300 jobs, including 2,856 military and civilian government jobs and another 3,500 private sector jobs, Sherman told the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in written testimony submitted during a hearing in Los Angeles. The base is economically important to the entire Ventura County and San Fernando Valley region.

The congressman also said the Defense Department had made a "highly questionable" assumption that many of the civil service and contract employees would move to China Lake. "The likely loss of experience, expertise and intellectual capital from employees unwilling to relocate would take the Navy years to reconstitute," he said.

In a separate letter to Anthony Principi, the commission chairman, Sherman called the relocation plan "something the nation can ill afford in this era of the global war on terrorism."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last May proposed a sweeping plan to close or reduce forces at 62 major bases and hundreds of smaller installations to save money and streamline the armed services.

The Los Angeles hearing was an opportunity for Southern California leaders to present their views to the nine-member commission, which will have held 19 similar sessions across the country before it produces a final list of targeted bases by Sept. 8.

The commission must send its revised list to the president, who has to approve it in its entirety or send it back to the commission for more work. After the president signs off on the list, it then goes to Congress, which must accept it or reject it as a whole.