Bush Says He Is ‘Unlikely’ to Overrule Base Closures : Military: He reaffirms his intention to send list intact to Congress. Position further deflates hopes of affected areas.

WASHINGTON —  Further deflating the hopes of areas where military bases have been recommended for closure by a special federal commission, President Bush said Monday that it is “highly unlikely” he will move to save any of the facilities.

“I’m not going to go in there and override some decision on a political basis. These are tough calls,” Bush said at a news conference in Kennebunkport, Me.

Bush said that he will review the list with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to assess its impact on the military but made clear his predisposition to send it to Congress. Cheney said Monday that he is pleased with the panel’s recommendation, which approved almost all of the proposed closures and realignment that the Pentagon had sent to it for consideration.

Earlier, Jim Courter, a former congressman who chaired the base commission, defended the process used to decide which bases should survive and which should not.

“The process I think is about as fair as you can possibly make it,” Courter said. “The decisions were based on the merits. It wasn’t based on Republican, Democrat, region. It wasn’t based on some important chairman of an appropriations committee saying: ‘Don’t close this, close that one over there.’ Our arguments were made in public and on the record. They may not be accepted by some people. They are accepted by the majority and the majority rules.”

In a final count of its work, the commission said that it had voted to close 35 military installations and realign 42 others. Among those to be closed are the Long Beach Naval Station, Ft. Ord near Monterey, Castle Air Force Base near Merced and Tustin Marine Corps Air Station.

If the recommendations finally are put into effect, they are expected to save $1.5 billion annually by 1998. As the U.S. armed forces shrink by 25% in the coming five years, Courter said, more bases should be shut.

The commission’s report was delivered Monday to Bush, who will have 15 days to give it his approval and send it to Congress. Unless Congress acts within 45 days--voting on the list of closures as a whole--to disapprove the report, the recommendations will be implemented within six years.

Courter conceded that once the list is approved by the White House and sent forward to Congress, there is little prospect that affected communities will be able to stop the closures and realignment of bases.

“The process is made to work . . . to create a mechanism such that we can make tough decisions fairly and in the open and on the merits and I think that will be the case,” Courter said. He added that he is confident, “when the dust settles, members of Congress will recognize this is the best process we can create” to shut down bases no longer needed by the military and save money.

The chairman of the seven-member commission also parried charges that California bases had taken a disproportionate hit in its deliberations.

“I don’t think really anybody believes that we’re doing anything politically,” Courter said. “I’m a Republican. There’s a freshman Republican senator in California. Pete Wilson is a Republican governor and he’s a long-time friend of mine. He called me up on a few occasions. He’s got a lot of things on his plate and cutting doesn’t help those.”