[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 11 (Thursday, January 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1132-S1133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BASE CLOSINGS

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, in less than 2 months the Secretary of 
Defense will forward to the 1995 Base Closure Commission his so-called 
``hit list'' of military base closings. Although it is an excruciating 
exercise, I think we would all agree that closing obsolete military 
bases is a painful necessity.
  With the end of the cold war, the Pentagon estimated that 30 percent 
of our domestic military bases must be shut down. Due in large part to 
the efforts of Senator Sam Nunn, of Georgia, and former Senator Alan 
Dixon, of Illinois, Congress created a bipartisan Base Closure 
Commission to help us make the necessary choices of which bases to 
close.
  I believe the base closure process is sound. It serves as a model of 
how to make difficult and politically sensitive budget-cutting 
decisions. The Base Closure Commission successfully completed base 
closure rounds in 1988, 1991, and 1993.
  As this chart to my left indicates, these three rounds of base 
closings eliminated some 70 military bases throughout America. Some 
areas and some States were hit harder than others.
  On March 1, 1995, the Commission will begin its very important 
deliberations once again, and before the year is through, the 
Commission will seek congressional and Presidential approval to close 
dozens of additional bases. We have been told that this list will be 
longer and painful. In fact, it has been said that this base closure 
round will possibly be equal in size to the first three rounds 
combined.
  To be certain, base closings hurt. In communities that lose a base, 
thousands of jobs are terminated, businesses close down, millions of 
dollars in annual revenue disappear from sight. Mr. President, I am 
personally aware of that pain caused by base closure announcements. The 
1991 Commission closed Eaker Air Force Base, a B-52 base located in 
Mississippi County, AR. They also took away a majority of the work at 
Fort Chaffee near Fort Smith, AR.
  Most of our colleagues in the Senate have witnessed the departure of 
the military in at least one community in their State. My colleagues 
from California lost eight major military bases in 1993 alone, as this 
map so indicates.
  We have seen communities react with anger and frustration to the news 
of base closings. We have witnessed their fear about surviving such a 
tremendous economic blow. For most base closure towns, the military was 
the largest employer, as in the case of Eaker Air Force Base in 
Blytheville, AR.
  Mr. President, I visited this base in 1992, 1 year after the closure 
announcement, to see how the local townspeople were coping with the 
impending loss of the Air Force.
  What I found was a community that desperately wanted to beat swords 
into plowshares. I found also a community that was receiving virtually 
no help whatsoever from the Federal Government. In fact, this community 
claimed that Washington was their largest roadblock to a speedy 
recovery. The citizens of Blytheville needed the Air Force's 
cooperation and the Federal Government's resources. What they received 
instead was bureaucratic lip service and endless red tape.
  The same was true in other communities across America. The problems 
were so severe that the former majority leader, Senator George 
Mitchell, decided to create a special task force to devise a strategy 
for easing the impact of defense budget reductions and for making a 
smooth transition to a post-cold war economy.
  Senator Mitchell asked me to become the task force chairman. With 24 
Democratic Senate colleagues, we began studying what the Federal 
Government's role should be, if any, to help in our Nation's ongoing 
transition from swords to plowshares.
  Our 1992 task force concluded that the end of the cold war had caught 
our country by surprise, and that we were late in devising a national 
strategy for helping our cold war workers, communities and companies 
find a new direction.
  We also found that the United States of America was better prepared 
to handle a much larger transition in the years following World War II. 
As early as 1943, 2 years before the war had ended, President Roosevelt 
made the decision to begin planning for the war's end and the difficult 
conversion to a peacetime economy. He had created the War 
Demobilization Office and charged this new entity with devising a 
national strategy. From this office emerged the GI bill and many other 
initiatives that helped our country grow and prosper in the years that 
followed.
  In 1992, however, 3 years after the Iron Curtain began to crack, our 
Government still had no comprehensive strategy for beating swords into 
plowshares. History, Mr. President, should have taught us better. The 
lesson learned after World War II, and in other periods of defense 
downsizing, was that our Government has a duty to provide comprehensive 
transition assistance to those affected by reductions in our Nation's 
defense expenditures.
  Some might say, Mr. President, that this is not the function nor the 
role of Government. I would submit, however, that our Government should 
become a partner in this endeavor and not an obstacle to economic 
recovery.
  To compensate for our slow start and to finally allow our Government 
to become a partner instead of an obstacle, [[Page S1133]] our 1992 
task force recommended sizable increases in defense reinvestment 
funding and programs. That same year a Republican task force, 
commissioned by then-minority leader Senator Dole and chaired by former 
Senator Warren Rudman, drew similar conclusions.
  This bipartisan agreement allowed Congress to quickly pass sweeping 
legislation to begin easing the pain of defense cutbacks and to help 
our cold war veterans beat swords into plowshares.
  In the area of base closures, I am very pleased to report that 
success stories are just beginning to arise in many communities across 
our country. I would like to highlight a few.
  At Chase Field in Beeville, TX, 1,500 jobs have now been created 
since the base closed in 1993. Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, NH, 
has created 1,000 new jobs since it closed in 1991. England Air Force 
Base in Alexandria, LA, has created over 600 new jobs due in large part 
to the J.B. Hunt Trucking Co.'s decision to use the old runways to 
train truck drivers.
  I might add as a personal note, Mr. President, that the J.B. Hunt 
Trucking Co., proudly, is an Arkansas-based firm.
  Each of these communities is learning that the loss of a military 
base can often bring opportunities for growth and renewed economic 
activity. They worked hard to achieve these results. They deserve 
tremendous credit.
  In each of these cases, however, our defense reinvestment programs 
are helping these communities rebound. Congressionally approved funds 
for planning grants, worker retraining, environmental cleanup, 
infrastructure, aviation improvements, and other necessary measures are 
helping these towns prepare for their future and replace lost military 
jobs.
  Without this assistance, base closure communities would not be able 
to rebound and find new work. But Congress and this administration 
provided the necessary support for our defense reinvestment programs. 
These are good investments, and they are just now beginning to bear 
fruit in base closure communities across our country.
  The same can be said of our technology reinvestment programs that are 
focusing today on boosting American competitiveness in the private 
sector by integrating our military and civilian technology sectors. 
These programs are vital to our economic security, and as a result, are 
vital to our national security. They are certainly worthy of 
congressional support.
  I am so deeply concerned by the recent statements by some of our 
colleagues in Congress who are suggesting these programs are pork, that 
they are a waste of money, and that they are in some way damaging our 
ability to fight and win future wars.
  I truly hope, Mr. President, that our 11 new colleagues in the Senate 
do not share this view. I would like to caution my new colleagues, and 
the Senate as a whole, against turning a cold shoulder to the men, the 
women, the communities, and the companies that fought and won the cold 
war. We have only begun to see the results of our wise investments.
  Mr. President, we are about to enter the base closing season once 
again. When the Commission submits its final list, workers and 
communities in our States will suddenly be thrown into economic 
downturn and in some cases economic despair. When this occurs, these 
defense reinvestment programs will not appear wasteful. Rather, they 
will be a helping hand to our communities' economic recovery efforts.
  It is my sincere hope that this base closure round, with the pain and 
economic trauma that it is expected to bring, will once again 
underscore the importance of helping beat swords into plowshares.
  Mr. President, last evening I had a visit with Senator Sam Nunn, the 
ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. We have decided, 
Mr. President, to invite Defense Secretary Bill Perry to come to 
Capitol Hill shortly following the Clinton administration's budget 
submission to brief any and all interested Members of the Senate on the 
importance of funding these defense reinvestment programs. Secretary 
Perry strongly believes that these programs are worthy of our support, 
and I am proud to join with Senator Nunn in setting up this forum in 
which Secretary Perry can come forward and answer our questions about 
these particular programs and why they should be supported in Congress.
  I encourage my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, to attend 
this particular briefing, the time and place of which will be announced 
soon.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair for recognizing me. I yield the 
floor. I see no other Senators on the floor; therefore, I suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry, are we in morning 
business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, it is my understanding--I ask unanimous 
consent I be able to proceed to speak in morning business for 20 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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