B-2 faces dissension in own backyard.

B-2 still faces dissension in own back yard

Despite mounting concern about the future of Southern California's ailing aerospace business, efforts to secure new congressional funding for Northrop Corp.'s B-2 bomber are proving as elusive as the stealth aircraft purports to be.

Just getting Los Angeles-area House and Senate members to unify behind the $865-million-a-copy plane has been next to impossible, even with heavy lobbying for the controversial project by Northrop, Gov. Pete Wilson and state legislators. A new grassroots campaign to tie the project's job impact to economically battered Los Angeles County has also failed to convert many of the region's 17-member congressional delegation.

But pro-B-2 forces insist the campaign is far from over - even though the House's powerful Armed Services committee killed an Air Force request last May to spend $4.8 billion for four additional B-2s. Last week the Senate, traditionally more hawkish on defense spending than the House, was scheduled to vote on the request.

This year's debate about B-2 funding coincides with growing concern about the future of Southern California defense contracts and the thousands of jobs they produce. More than ever, Southland officials - from Los Angeles City Hall to Sacramento and Washington, D.C. - have stressed the economic impact of declining Pentagon spending. Los Angeles County has lost 60,000 defense jobs since 1987 and could be stripped of another 150,000 if military spending continues moving downward, according to a recently issued report by economic consultant McKinsey & Co.

With an uncertain future for the stealth bomber and the Defense Department's $290 billion budget sure to be trimmed in subsequent years, Southland aerospace executives have grown vocal about the lack of congressional backing for Los Angeles military projects.

Said one state official, "The aerospace industry is generally disgusted with the lack of support."

At the same time, political moves by Wilson, a former member of the Senate Armed Services committee, to rally House members around the B-2 may have backfired and widened the gap between Democrats and Republicans.

A high state Democratic official in Washington, D.C., who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, "This whole thing is getting a little hysterial. Some members of the (California Democratic congressional) delegation do not like to be threatened by having their votes on defense published. Defense projects are not jobs programs. There are other things that can be done than just spending money on defense to create jobs."

Two weeks ago a group of business, social service and academic leaders formed a group called "Californians for Aerospace Leadership," saying it would publish the voting records on defense projects of members of the state's congressional delegation. Wilson was the first person to sign a pledge of commitment to the group to work to save the industry in California.

Carl Covitz, the secretary for the state's Department of Business, Housing and Transportation, denied accusations of pressure tactics, saying Wilson wanted to create accountability for voters on issues like Northrop's B-2.

"It's terribly important that the B-2 be considered from all aspects - as a defense system and its impact on the California economy," Covitz said in an interview last week. "This is not something we take lightly ... and that's why Wilson got personally involved. We're hard at work."

On another front, a bipartisan slate of nine Southern California lawmakers has formed a B-2 caucus to generate critical votes for the plane. The Air Force and the Bush administration want a fleet of 75 B-2s, though the House has capped production funds at 15 planes.

"I've never seen a caucus formed for just a particular defense system," said member Matthew Martinez (D-Montebello). "I think part of the reason was that with Lockheed moving to Georgia, we need the jobs."

Still, the county's House and Senate delegations are badly divided on defense spending and the B-2 project does not have across-the-board support, even though 12,000 Northrop employees work on the program and it produced half the company's $5.4 billion in revenues last year. Some industry experts have said that as many as 30,000 people may be employed either directly and indirectly by the B-2 program.

Two delegation members, Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), have shifted from opposing or waivering on the B-2 to supporting it. But most of the other members' positions remain as they were six months ago, with the delegation divided on B-2 funding.

Influential congressional Democrats like Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) remain staunchly opposed to the B-2 because of declining superpower tensions, the plane's high cost and its unproven stealth technology.

The bomber's supporters, though out-numbered in the House, include Carlos Moorehead (R-Glendale), David Dreier (R-Covina) and Martinez. Aides to those members and others say it is next to impossible to coalesce an ideologically divergent delegation like California.

It was Ron Dellums, a liberal Democratic congressman from San Francisco, who led this year's move to ground new B-2 funding.

Despite claims by Wilson and other business and elected officials in California, few if any members of the delegation said they have been lobbied more heavily than usual by pro-defense spending forces.

"I can't say that there has been any effort to unify the delegation behind the B-2 or that there has been more lobbying than usual. I've seen a letter from labor on the B-2, but other than that nothing comes to mind," said Marwan Burgan, legislative director for Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton), a liberal who supports the B-2 because of the jobs it produces.

In addition to Wilson, the state's junior senator, Republican John Seymour, is said to be working behind the scenes lobbying the delegation to support defense projects. Pat McCartan, Seymour's aide on defense matters, said, "We have written a letter to all of our colleagues urging support of the B-2. I think the effort will have some success because we have saved the space station."

Lobbying by Wilson was considered by many to be key in saving the space station from the chopping block - a move that will help Rockwell International Corp., a key contractor on the project.

Because House and Senate members from the Armed Services committee will meet in the fall to work out a compromise on a total Pentagon spending package before it goes to the White House, Wilson has targeted key senate lawmakers in the hope they can get critical votes. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) were on that list.

Meanwhile, Century City-based Northrop, which has sought to downplay its image as a scandal-ridden defense contractor, seems to have had things on its side this year. The success of Lockheed Corp.'s F-117 Stealth Fighter in the Persian Gulf War was seen as helping the B-2 because of its heavy dependence on radar-eluding stealth technology.

That performance, combined with Southern California Republicans on the House Armed Services committee - most notably Rep. Duncan Hunter and Rep. Bob Dornan, both of Orange County - led some to think the B-2 might be rescued from a production cap of 15.

PHOTO : Supporters of the stealth bomber are fighting for the aircraft's survival: A necessary military asset or Southern California jobs program?