The Nation - News from March 22, 1988

President Reagan’s top Capitol Hill lobbyist, William L. Ball III, got a warm reception from the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing as the Administration’s third Navy secretary. The committee was expected to quickly approve him as a replacement for James H. Webb Jr., who quit in a budget dispute with Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci, and the Senate was also expected to quickly confirm the nomination. Ball, a 39-year-old veteran of posts on Capitol Hill and the executive branch, told the panel the goal of a 600-ship Navy has not been abandoned.