[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 983]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE UNITED STATES ARMY'S RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE 
                           UPON ITS 10TH YEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CHET EDWARDS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 28, 2008

  Mr. EDWARDS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the tenth year 
of a unique program in the annals of our Nation's proud military 
heritage. On January 28, 1999, the Honorable Mahlon Apgar, IV, then 
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Logistics and 
Environment, first presented the Residential Communities Initiative, 
known as RCI, in a briefing to the Urban Land Institute. Few in that 
distinguished audience of real estate developers, financiers and public 
officials appreciated the far-reaching impact that RCI would have on 
the Army, on industry, and, most importantly, on improving the quality 
of life for thousands of military families.
  At that time, the Army faced a monumental challenge in its 
Government-owned housing and infrastructure. Seventy-five percent of 
the family housing on Army posts was substandard, and the poor 
conditions were hurting recruiting and retention. Military communities 
lacked amenities that most other Americans enjoyed. The Army's 
construction and maintenance backlog exceeded $6 billion, with no 
predictable funding sources in sight. Complicated, cumbersome business 
processes caused significant delays in planning and executing housing 
programs.
  Today, as we start RCI's tenth year, it is a major success. In fact, 
the Bush Administration calls RCI the ``most important military housing 
improvement program in our Nation's history.'' I am honored to have 
played a leadership role in RCI from its start. Despite numerous 
challenges in policy, organization and execution, RCI has achieved high 
satisfaction rates among military families, lower development costs and 
faster construction, better housing, neighborhoods and community 
facilities, and more responsive maintenance and management. RCI 
encompasses over 88,000 new and renovated multi-family housing units--
97 percent of the Army's U.S. housing stock--located on 45 
installations in 20 states. RCI communities are purposefully and 
profitably built and managed by nine major real estate development 
groups and are financed with $10 billion of new private capital, 
achieving 10-to-1 leverage of public investment--an exceptional result 
for the taxpayer. RCI projects are pioneering the use of manufactured 
housing, solar-powered and ``green building'' techniques, and ``new 
urbanism'' design concepts for safe, walkable neighborhoods, with 
community centers and leisure facilities that are especially important 
to military spouses and children during long deployments. RCI has 
spawned other military privatization programs for Army lodging, 
unaccompanied housing, retail and ``lifestyle'' centers, office parks 
and warehouse developments. RCI has become one of the Federal 
Government's largest public-private partnership programs.
  I was proud to help Secretary Apgar steer RCI through four 
Congressional committees and a skeptical Army leadership. With no prior 
Washington experience but a clear vision of the future, a gracious 
manner and a pragmatic approach, he bore the brunt of considerable 
criticism and built coalitions among numerous stakeholders across the 
political and commercial spectrum.
  Many saw RCI as a dilution of control, a diversion of resources, and 
a haven for profiteering. But Secretary Apgar saw it as a means of 
expanding the Army's military construction budgets with private 
capital, enlisting the entrepreneurship and capabilities of American 
business, and reforming the Army's approach to meeting infrastructure 
needs.
  Madam Speaker, RCI has progressed from the vision and persistence of 
a single official, through the minefields of committee oversight and 
staff reviews and the complexities of our vast military organization, 
to a mature, sustainable, bipartisan, public-private partnership 
effort. At a time of enormous sacrifice by our soldiers and their loved 
ones, we can be proud of a program that provides military families with 
the quality housing and communities they so deserve. And in an era of 
economic stress, we should look to RCI for lessons that may help to 
meet our national challenges in rebuilding infrastructure and managing 
resources.

                          ____________________