WASHINGTON - The Labor Department said Tuesday it will provide up to $1 million in planning funds for communities that may lose civilian jobs due to military base closings.

Emily Stover DeRocco, assistant secretary for employment and training administration, sent a letter to state work force agencies outlining federal grants eligible to help communities plan for transition should bases in their areas end up on the final list of closings.

DeRocco said that in past rounds of base closings, "communities which undertook effective and timely planning successfully transitioned from a defense to a nondefense economy."

The Pentagon released its recommendations for closure and realignment May 13. An independent commission is now reviewing the list, and may make changes. The list then goes to President Bush before it is sent to Congress for approval.

In North Dakota, the Pentagon is recommending that the Grand Forks Air Force base lose its air refueling tankers and most of its personnel, a move that could cost the area nearly 5,000 jobs.

DeRocco said the Labor Department believes the time between the recommendations and final congressional approval "is the most effective time to plan for the services necessary to assist affected workers and communities."

The letter says the grants should be awarded by June 30, and only communities that would be affected by the Pentagon's recommended list are eligible.

The department recommends that states use the money for training potentially displaced workers, staffing transition efforts, hiring consultants to deal with local agencies and developing long-range goals for economic development.

Though the limit for the first round of grants is $1 million per community, the department says more money will be eligible once Congress has made the final decision, probably in November. DeRocco said the awards will be granted based on the number and size of facilities affected, the potential economic impact and the ability of the work force already in place to deal with the transition.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said the grants would be a "much-needed solace" if South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base remains on the list. The Pentagon recommended the base be closed, moving 411 civilian jobs out of Rapid City.

Thune and lawmakers from other affected states are pushing President Bush and military officials to save their bases.

North Dakota's congressional delegation complained Tuesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the state does not have enough information to argue the case for Grand Forks Air Force base.

Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., also requested more information about the Minot Air Force Base and the Air National Guard unit in Fargo, which would lose its fighter planes under the Pentagon plan.

The delegation said it wants more detail on what Grand Forks facilities the Pentagon plans to keep open, information requests from the Department of Defense to each military installation, projections for savings and other analyses.

Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said the department is checking the material for a security review.

"Everyone wants it faster than we are getting it to them," Flood said.

The commission considering the Pentagon recommendations will hold a hearing in Grand Forks on June 23.

Republicans from the New York delegation lobbied Bush and adviser Karl Rove aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, asking him to save Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert said Bush told him: "'You're in the same position I was in in '95, you're making the same case and I hear you, but you've got to make that case to the commission."'