Navy nominees steer clear of carrier battle

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama's nominees for the Navy's top civilian posts appear headed for Senate confirmation, having steered a carefully neutral course Tuesday through a Virginia-Florida battle over East Coast ports for the service's aircraft carriers.

Ray Mabus, Obama's choice for secretary of the Navy, and Robert Work, the nominee for under secretary, told senators that a decision about moving a carrier from Norfolk Naval Station to Mayport Naval Station in Florida will be made as part of a broad study of defense programs, the Quadrennial Defense Review, later this year.

Despite prodding from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, neither man would offer an opinion on what that decision should be.

"I simply do not have enough information to give you an answer," Mabus told Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.

The Virginia and Florida congressional delegations have been battling for more than two years over a Navy plan to shift one of five Norfolk-based flattops to Mayport, near Jacksonville. Former Navy Secretary Donald Winter in January gave a go-ahead for the move.

Virginia officials argue that the change, which they say could require close to $1 billion in renovations and new facilities at Mayport, is unnecessary.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Martinez went toe-to-toe on the issue Tuesday during a hearing on the nominations.

Navy leaders last year identified $4.6 billion worth of programs they need but cannot pay for, Webb noted. Against that backdrop, asking for up to $1 billion for Mayport renovations is "a step from the 'area of need' to the 'area of nice to have,' " he said.

Nelson countered by reading from past statements by a series of top Navy leaders who argued that placing a carrier in Mayport would be a hedge against a natural disaster or a terrorist attack in Hampton Roads.

The fight carries multibillion-dollar stakes for both states. Losing a carrier would drain 3,000 jobs and $225 million a year from the Hampton Roads economy, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission has estimated.

The committee did not vote Tuesday on the nominations of Mabus, a former governor of Mississippi and U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and Work, a retired Marine colonel who now works at a defense think tank in Washington. But both men are expected to win confirmation without opposition.

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com