Postpone Base Closures
Kucinich gave the following speech in Congress on May 25, 2005
"Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Bradley amendment because my hometown, Cleveland, is losing 1,100 jobs. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, DFAS, which is the fourth largest employer in Cleveland, is shifting these jobs to DFAS facilities in Columbus; Denver, Colorado; and Indianapolis. The NASA Glenn Research Center will also lose 50 civilian military research jobs as a part of BRAC. The Army research laboratory at Glenn is losing the vehicle technology directorate. And, finally, the Navy Corps Reserve Center in Cleveland will close and lose 25 jobs.
"The Secretary of Defense is required to consider the economic impact on existing communities in the vicinity of military installations. In this case, the Department of Defense erroneously states that a 0.1 percent job loss in the Cleveland metropolitan statistical area has minimal economic impact. However, the Department of Defense failed to take into account the current economic position of the Cleveland area.
"Cleveland has been labeled as the poorest city in the country today. Its poverty rate of 31.3 percent is the highest in the Nation, according to the most recent Census Bureau data from 2003. Cleveland's number one ranking in poverty rate results from the significant job losses in the steel and manufacturing industries over the past several decades.
"These job losses continue. For example, the current 2006 budget recently passed by Congress would slash up to 700 high-paying Federal jobs at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The economy around Cleveland is stagnating. It is inconceivable that the Department of Defense thinks that 1,100 more job losses will not have a major impact on the city of Cleveland.
"If the process used to cut these jobs is flawed, I have no choice but to vote for a fix to disable the BRAC process."
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