WASHINGTON — Two U.S. senators, frustrated by Pentagon delays in releasing crucial data on military base closing decisions, issued a subpoena Tuesday to obtain additional documents.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the committee's ranking Democrat, said the Pentagon was failing to meet its legal obligations to give communities information that could help them argue against the base closings.
The subpoena, issued under the authority of Collins' committee, gives the Pentagon until Monday to respond.
Lieberman is trying to reverse the proposed closure of the New London Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., where 8,460 jobs are at stake, while Collins is trying to save the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, where 4,510 people work.
The two facilities are among 33 major military installations that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recommended for closure in May, along with cutbacks at hundreds of other bases at a cost of more than 26,000 jobs.
