[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13944-13945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      DFAS BRAC COMMISSIONER VISIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of a wonderful 
facility, the DFAS center in Cleveland, the Defense Finance and 
Accounting Services Center in the city of Cleveland, originally founded 
in 1942 as the Navy Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. It was renamed in 
1955, and then DFAS was created in 1991, established six field sites in 
1995, a reorganization in 2000, and unfortunately this year DFAS in 
Cleveland has become a victim of a BRAC reorganization.
  I am pleased to stand here today with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Kucinich) from the Tenth Congressional District from Ohio, and we were 
joined earlier today by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) from 
the 14th Congressional District. And in that process, we had an 
opportunity to meet with the BRAC Commissioner. He was a wonderful 
general by the name of ``Fig'' Newton, who came to give us a site visit 
on this particular issue.
  And I am pleased to now engage in a colloquy with the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me 
and want to say what a pleasure and honor it is to work with her and 
with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) as well in our effort to 
save over 1,000 jobs at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in 
Cleveland, Ohio.
  This is a center which is important for the entire Nation because 
this is a center which processes payroll for a total of 5.7 million 
Department of Defense employees, military, civilian, and retired, 
including 2 million Armed Forces members, Navy Active Reserve, Air 
Force Reserve and Guard, and Army Reserve; 2.4 million military 
retirees and annuitants. They also do work for the Department of Energy 
and the Office of Health and Human Services and for various armed 
service headquarters' elements.
  I want to say that this center has been recognized and acknowledged 
across this country for the tremendous work which the people there do. 
They do the best accounting work; and now, despite the fact that they 
have been doing great work for decades, they are finding that the rug 
is being pulled out from them by a BRAC that does not even save any 
money.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. And, reclaiming my time, 
the interesting thing about this BRAC facility in the city of 
Cleveland, it has developed a system for garnishment, which is one of 
the ways in which we are able to collect child support for young people 
across this country. They have developed a system for retired annuitant 
pay that is one of the finest systems in the country. It just seems to 
me that they could not be considering the economic situation in the 
city of Cleveland in deciding to take this BRAC on.
  I yield to the gentleman from Ohio to talk about that.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman is correct. Unfortunately, 
in the city whose responsibilities we share as Members of the Congress 
to represent the people here in the Federal Government, our city has 
had one of the highest poverty rates in America, and one of the 
criteria which must be taken into account during a BRAC are the 
economic conditions within the community. And it is clear that the

[[Page 13945]]

economic conditions in the city of Cleveland were not taken into 
account, and that is one of the bases of the appeal that we are making 
to the BRAC Commission in Buffalo on Monday.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, it is very 
interesting that today we had an opportunity to have a rally with the 
DFAS workers and more than 1,000 of these workers came out in support 
of keeping their jobs. I am confident that with the work that we will 
do that we will be able to establish in this BRAC hearing on Monday in 
the city of Buffalo that the city of Cleveland deserves to hold on to 
this facility and that the 1,200 people along with the 1,000 people in 
county jobs who facilitate these services will be able to stay on.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank the gentlewoman 
from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) for the tremendous leadership that she has shown 
in rallying the community. She really has performed a powerful service, 
as well as the work of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette), in 
building the case.
  Keep in mind the BRAC Commission has the authority to change the 
Department's recommendations if it determines that the Secretary 
deviated substantially from the force structure and/or selection 
criteria, and I believe that the Department of Defense has clearly 
deviated from the selection criteria in two areas: the Secretary is 
required to consider, among several things, the military value and the 
economic impact on existing communities in the vicinity of the military 
installations, and the Department of Defense has erroneously ranked the 
military value for DFAS Cleveland low and states that a .01 percent 
within the Cleveland metropolitan statistical area has minimal economic 
impact.
  We look forward to taking our case to Buffalo.

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