The $400 million in savings projected by the Mayor's office extend over the next five years, when all the bus contracts will now expire.

As for the Government, its savings, projected at $4.3 billion over five years, would go to reducing the Federal budget deficit.

The costs have already been factored into the savings projected for closing the plant, he said.

But some city lawmakers questioned whether the savings projected by the Education Department would actually materialize - and, even more crucially, whether they would truly filter down to the schools.

The combined company has delivered at the high end of the annual savings projected when they did the deal ($191 million).

Mr. Aspin's aides are struggling to determine whether savings projected at $71 billion over five years incorporated into Mr. Bush's budget can be achieved on schedule.

The rest would come from the state charity fund that now subsidizes hospitals treating the poor and from savings projected from the moving of Medicaid recipients into managed care plans.

Republicans said that these provisions accounted for 75 percent of the $55 billion in savings projected under the bill in the next six years.

In a statement, the Defense Department said that "the savings projected by General Dynamics did not now outweigh potential competitive disadvantages from the proposed merger."