[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 84 (Friday, May 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   PROTECT AMERICA'S DEFENSE WORKERS

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 18, 1995
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to urge this 
Congress to make a major reinvestment in communities hit hardest by the 
downsizing of America's defense industry.
  San Diego is home to a highly skilled and productive work force. A 
generation of these talented defense workers helped to establish 
California's dominance in the defense and aerospace industry.
  Now defense workers in communities like San Diego are watching their 
jobs disappear--not only because of relaxing world tensions--but also 
because our own Department of Defense is helping to subsidize their 
transfer to other cities.
  Last year, my district saw the relocation of Martin Marietta's Space 
Systems Division to Denver--with a net loss of 1,800 jobs for my 
community. But the worst part about this situation is that our own U.S. 
Air Force rewrote a contract and paid Martin Marietta a $30 million 
subsidy to help transfer these jobs out of San Diego and out of 
California.
  To make matters worse, just last month the Defense Department gave 
away another $31 million of taxpayer money to the top executives of 
Martin Marietta and Lockheed.
  What did our Defense Department give to those defense workers in San 
Diego that lost their jobs? Absolutely nothing.
  To correct this gross injustice, I recently introduced H.R. 702, the 
Displaced Workers Defense Act of 1995.
  My legislation is very simple: It would require that any cost savings 
realized by the Federal Government under a defense contract that causes 
job losses in communities be returned to that community--to help create 
new jobs and to retrain displaced defense workers so they can take 
advantage of these new job opportunities.
  We must stop this giveaway of taxpayer funds to wealthy corporations.
  We must use our scarce resources to help those defense workers that 
have worked so hard to make America great.
  Please join me in this effort to protect our defense workers from 
being left behind in our changing economy. Join me in supporting H.R. 
702, the Displaced Workers Defense Act of 1995.


                          ____________________