Hampton Roads Military Affairs Commission
Posted By HR Partnership on February 1, 2010
Hoping to unify and bolster Hampton Roads’ political clout on military issues, including the fight to keep one of the region’s aircraft carriers, U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye has formed a panel of local, state and federal elected leaders and retired military officers.
The Hampton Roads Military Affairs Commission will “serve as a watchdog and an advocate for the military community,” Nye said Thursday as he stood with several panel members outside Nauticus in Norfolk.
“Clearly one of the top issues on the agenda is the question of the East Coast home porting of our nuclear carriers,” said Nye, a Democrat whose 2nd District encompasses Virginia Beach and part of Norfolk. “As you know, the Navy has not demonstrated a clear strategic rationale for spending up to $1 billion or more to create a redundant nuclear carrier home port on the East Coast at a time when we are facing serious budget shortfalls in other areas.”
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said the panel’s creation is long overdue given that some other communities, including supporters of the effort to move a Norfolk-based carrier to Mayport, Fla., already have well-organized groups that include local and federal leaders.
“A coordinated effort where we have direct access to our congressional delegation is so important,” Fraim said. “There’s strength in numbers.”
Joining Fraim on the panel will be at least three other mayors, including Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms; the state’s two U.S. senators and all local congressmen, outgoing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine; and several retired senior naval officers. Nye said he is also asking the region’s state legislators and Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell to participate.
The region’s communities already created the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance (HRMFFA), a quasi-public agency funded by cities and counties to protect and expand federal government activities in the region.
The new commission, which includes Alliance director Frank Roberts as a member, would expand that effort to include federal and state officials and those with military expertise, Nye said.
“I felt like we needed to take it up a notch,” Nye said. “I think there was a lack of feeling in the military community that we really were unified.”
excerpts from by Bill Bartel, The Virginian-Pilot; Photo credit, Fox 43 TV
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Quadrennial review says Navy ‘will’ base carrier in Florida
By Bill Bartel
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 2, 2010
Defense officials made clear Monday they’re backing the Navy’s desire to relocate a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla.
Whether the Navy is successful may come down to a nasty fight in Congress, say some Virginia legislators, who argue the military hasn’t provided any solid research to justify the relocation.
“This is not a done deal,” U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., said Monday. “I would be curious to see where the Navy believes that it can take a billion dollars away from shipbuilding, weapons procurement, ship maintenance and repair, and building a fleet in order to construct an alternate port which, on all accounts, doesn’t seem to be needed.”
The Defense Department released Monday its four-year review of defense strategy, which promotes the carrier move. The Quadrennial Defense Review declares: “To mitigate the risk of a terrorist attack, accident, or natural disaster, the U.S. Navy will homeport an East Coast carrier in Mayport, Florida.”
All five nuclear carriers on the East Coast are currently based in Norfolk.
Top Navy officials have been pushing the move for a couple of years, arguing that it is dangerous to keep all the East Coast carriers in a single location.
Several Virginia members of Congress said Monday that despite the Navy’s claim that Hampton Roads carries a higher risk of terrorist attack, accident or disaster, the military has not provided any classified or unclassified analysis to back their statement.
“What we have constantly come back to is the realization from almost every independent analysis that this is a poor decision by the Navy – if not a scandalous decision,” said U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-4th District, which includes Portsmouth and Chesapeake.
Moving a carrier will be driven by “pure political clout,” said Forbes, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “I was in the White House when President Bush looked over to the Florida delegation and said, ‘We’re going to get you that carrier.’… It’s been carried on to this administration.”
What Norfolk loses and Florida gains from a carrier move was enthusiastically explained Monday by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
“The economic impact is going to be terrific,” Nelson said during a Florida media briefing. “You think about a carrier is a flagship of a carrier battle group. This then will likely enable us to have additional ships that will be homeported here…. Just the carrier itself with a half-a-billion dollars of construction, 4,000 sailors, their families and all the attendant businesses that go along with that is a huge economic shot in the arm for Jacksonville.”
Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce officials have said losing a carrier would cost the region 11,000 jobs and $650 million.
Given the recession, said U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd District, which includes Virginia Beach and part of Norfolk, the state’s delegation will press the Navy to explain how it can afford the Mayport project “particularly at a time when we’ve seen the administration propose the smallest pay increase for our armed forces in many decades.”
Nye said he has asked the Government Accountability Office to examine the relocation effort.
The next step in the process is congressional hearings, which begin today when the defense budget and the four-year review are taken up by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Webb, who serves on the Senate panel, anticipates asking about the Mayport project, Jessica Smith, his spokeswoman, said.
Blocking movement of a carrier will be difficult, Forbes said.
“I think we keep having to pound away that this is a terrible decision and where are they gong to get the money,” he said. “I think it’s going to come down to raw power.”
Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/quadrennial-review-says-navy-will-base-carrier-florida
Nye Calls Meeting of Hampton Roads Military Affairs Commission
02/24/10
Washington, DC –With the Navy still refusing to answer questions about the strategic rationale behind moving a nuclear aircraft carrier out of Norfolk, Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) announced today that he will call a meeting of the Hampton Roads Military Affairs Commission next Monday to discuss the issue.
“This is the third hearing in a row in which the Navy has flatly refused to provide any risk-based justification for creating a redundant East Coast carrier homeport, and it’s becoming clear that they simply don’t have one,” said Congressman Glenn Nye. “I have called a meeting of the Hampton Roads Military Affairs Commission to ask the tough questions about this decision that the Navy has been unwilling to address. Our defense spending needs to be based on real strategic assessments, not judgment calls or old clichés like ‘keeping all your eggs in one basket.’”
Read more at http://nye.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=24&itemid=369