Letter May Limit Loss Of Base Jobs

President Clinton is now expected to approve the recommendations of an independent commission on military base closings after the head of the panel assured the Defense Department in writing that thousands of jobs in California and Texas can be turned over to the private sector, a White House source said Sunday.

A weekend letter from Alan J. Dixon, the former Illinois Democratic senator who heads the bipartisan commission, to Deputy Defense Secretary John P. White, apparently closes the circle of an intricate maneuver the White House has been working on for weeks in an effort to allow Clinton to adopt the baseclosing report without unnecessarily alienating California politicians and voters.

The state’s 54 Electoral College votes are considered crucial to his re-election hopes next year.

Dixon has said repeatedly that it is his position the commission report itself clearly gives the Pentagon authority to privatize some of the 11,000 military and civilian jobs that would be lost by closing McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, as well as some of the 20,000 jobs threatened by the closure of Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio.