New defense spending cuts began to hit home with some early word on base closings and a warning from Defense Secretary Les Aspin that the next batch of closures won't be the last.
Aspin, set to announce the military's suggested base hit list, warned lawmakers in a memo Wed-nes-day that their constituents will have more pain to swallow in the coming years."I am confident future changes will decrease force structure and will require more, not fewer, base closures than those I will recommend at this time," he said.
Senate sources said lawmakers should begin receiving word on closures Thursday, but word already was leaking out on which bases will be affected, drawing swift protests.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the Pentagon was proposing to strip McGuire Air Force Base in his state of its active-duty personnel, turning it into a National Guard and reserve base.
"I'm prepared to fight this proposal every inch of the way," Lautenberg said. "New Jersey should not be the target of more cutbacks," he said, citing 1991 decisions to turn Fort Dix into a reserve base and close the Phil-a-del-phia Naval Shipyard.
California officials said they had learned that 46 percent of the economic losses from base closures would be sustained by their state, one of the big losers in two previous rounds of closings.
California state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, in Washington to lobby the White House on the bases issue, reminded President Clinton that his decisions toward the state "could adversely affect California in such a way that Californians would not forget it short-term or long-term."