[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 105 (Wednesday, August 3, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
   DOD'S INTERIM RULE CONCERNING THE REVITALIZATION OF BASE CLOSURE 
                              COMMUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Guam [Mr. Underwood] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to 
address an issue that is of concern to many communities that are 
experiencing base closures, and this is regarding DOD's interim rule 
regarding base closures and regarding implementing the so-called Pryor 
amendment.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to state very clearly that the people of 
Guam, including myself, have very strong objections to the Department 
of Defense's implementation of the Pryor rule. We all know that at the 
beginning of the base closure process and at the beginning of this 
administration, President Clinton issued a 5-point plan which was 
designed to help communities affected by base closures. The plan aimed 
to expedite the turnover of property in order to create jobs, foster 
economic development, and provide a minimum of transition problems 
related to any base closure. The Pryor amendment explicitly stated that 
the Federal Government can best contribute to community development by 
making base property available to communities which are affected by 
such closures, and Guam is certainly one of them, with the closure of 
naval air station Agana. The DOD interim rule, however, contravenes the 
spirit of the Pryor amendment, and indeed the whole spirit of the 
Clinton 5-point plan. It allows private entities to bid against local 
governments trying to put property to public use.

                              {time}  1600

  It allows the Department of Defense to take 60 percent of all profits 
from property sales pursuant to base closures and it gives the military 
the sole discretion over how these properties are to be evaluated, and 
moreover it even allows the possibility of the sale of these properties 
to foreign interests.
  The people of Guam, like Americans across the country, want a greater 
voice in the decisionmaking process than the interim rule proposes. For 
example, the rule only gives local reuse committees an advisory rule, 
not a substantive position, to determine future land uses. Community 
reuse plans are currently developed through a process characterized by 
diverse interests, negotiation and consensus-building. What use are 
these reuse plans if they are not implemented?
  This lack of meaningful community participation means that the 
interim rule stumbles into a longstanding problem on Guam. In the 
beginning this land which we now call NAS was originally the property 
of the original inhabitants of Guam. The original NAS airstrip was 
built by Chamorros during the Japanese occupation and now that there is 
an opportunity to get this property back into the hands of the people 
of Guam, we have this interim rule. Moreover, would not it be a great 
irony that Japanese foreign interests are allowed to buy this property 
under the existing rules?
  In 1993 under a Base Realignment and Closure Commission directive, 
the people of Guam finally won the right to reclaim that land. To 
tamper with the complete and unfettered transfer of NAS Agana to the 
people of Guam would not just be a procedural miscalculation but a 
continuation of a series of historical injustices surrounding land 
issues on Guam. Furthermore, it would be a bitter irony to see such an 
action this year, the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Guam from 
Japanese hands.
  I am concerned that the services, in particular the Navy, are 
implementing the interim rule too quickly. For example, the Director of 
Naval Real Estate for the Pacific Division wrote to our base reuse 
committee to inform us that the proper valuation process under the 
interim rule was being initiated, even as a new time period has been 
allowed for public comment on these very interim rules. On August 5, 
this Friday, there will be a public hearing on the rules which the Navy 
in its haste has begun to process.
  I commend the Department of Defense for holding the hearing, but I 
call upon them to implement the prior amendment and to implement all 
the rules within the spirit of the 5-point plan of the Clinton 
administration.
  It is a bitter irony in particular, the possibility of sale to 
foreign interests of this property.
  We have all heard about Buy American. How about Sell American.

                          ____________________