House Vote: Move Military Base Jobs

Defying a veto threat from President Clinton, the House voted on Monday night to overturn the administration’s plan to keep thousands of jobs at two large Air Force maintenance bases in Texas and California that were ordered closed two years ago.

The vote, 278 to 145, defeated an amendment to the $268 billion Pentagon budget bill, for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, which would have kept the administration plan intact. Clinton’s aides say he will veto any bill that reverses the plan.

In 1995, with an eye on the electoral votes of two large states, Clinton sought to keep thousands of military jobs at Kelly Air Base in San Antonio and McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., from being shifted to military bases in other states.

Many Republicans, led by lawmakers from Oklahoma, Georgia and Utah, whose Air Force maintenance centers would inherit the work from the two bases, led the charge Monday against what they said was Clinton’s political meddling.