Approving BRAC's Performance
Kucinich gave the following speech in Congress on October 27, 2005:
Speaking in opposition to H.J. Res. 65, Disapproving the Recommendations of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, Congressman Kucinich said:
"Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this resolution because I believe the BRAC Commission has performed its job admirably. It wisely chose to remove from the closure list the Defense Finance and Accounting Services in Cleveland which was scheduled to lose 1,028 jobs. This came after a very strong community effort in Cleveland that was led by the Greater Cleveland Partnership and attorney Fred Nance, whose brilliant presentation at the BRAC Commission hearing was quite persuasive.
"It also came as a result of work that was done by our colleague from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette). The gentleman from Ohio has demonstrated that a bipartisan cooperation and partnership can be quite successful in helping to strengthen a community's economic position.
"We worked together, along with the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), other Federal officials, and local officials to ensure that we made the best case possible as to why the people who do an admirable service at DFAS in Cleveland should be permitted to continue doing their work.
"The 2005 Department of Defense recommendations put on the BRAC closure list inappropriately the Cleveland area, and they targeted Cleveland with over 1,000 job cuts. We made the case that those potential job losses were unjust and unfair and counterproductive to the interest of our Federal Government. The BRAC Commission reversal wound up adding 475 jobs, in addition to saving the current jobs. This means Cleveland will host 1,500 DFAS jobs and continue to be a major financial center for the Department of Defense.
"The BRAC Commission showed independence from the Pentagon, which is a rare feat in Washington, D.C. and Cleveland is grateful for their independence. This shows all of us why independence in our government's decision-making process is a crucial ingredient to ensure that the right decisions are made. This is another opportunity to move our great city off the list of cities with the highest poverty rate. The commission accepted the argument that the Pentagon should not move jobs from Cleveland, a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the Nation, to other cities which ranked much lower in poverty.
"So in all, I believe that the BRAC recommendations represented a very thoughtful, well-reasoned set of recommendations. I was honored to have the opportunity to participate and actually see the process at work, and I was also honored to work closely with my colleagues from the House of Representatives, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette)."
[Ed. note: H.J. Res. 65 failed by recorded vote: 85 - 324 (Roll No. 548).]
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