http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/112513552837090.xml&coll=2 How Cleveland won the DFAS war How Cleveland fought the Pentagon
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
Washington- You might not know their names, but their work saved more than 1,000 jobs in Cleveland and gained a promise of more to come...
More precisely, they found gross errors in the case the Pentagon built for recommending closure of the Cleveland office and keeping open those in Columbus, Indianapolis and Denver.
The fight was hard to launch because of the way the Pentagon trickled out its purported reasoning. So in came the politicians.
The reasoning emerged by summer only under demands by ...Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland, as well as their West Side Cleveland colleague, Rep. Dennis Kucinich...
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-25-2005/0004094432&EDATE=Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Statement on BRAC Commission Decision on DFAS
CLEVELAND, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs
Jones released this statement regarding the Base Realignment and Closure
Commission (BRAC) decision to keep open the Cleveland office of the federal
Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS):
"I thank the entire BRAC Commission, particularly Chairman Anthony
Principi and General Lloyd Newton, for their decision to not only keep open
Cleveland DFAS, but to expand jobs at the facility. Today's decision is a
victory for the people of Cleveland and the 11th Congressional District. I
join with them today as we celebrate the decision of the BRAC Commission in
recognizing what we have known from the beginning - that The Cleveland DFAS
facility is a cutting edge model of operational efficiency and customer
service of U.S. military pay operations around the world. This facility has
earned the right to remain open and continue to provide 'A+' services to its
executive clients and most importantly the men and women serving in
Afghanistan, Iraq and around the World.
Additionally, I would like to thank my colleagues...Dennis Kucinich, for their tireless efforts in this process. Through our
collaboration we were able to outline to the Commission the various
discrepancies in the initial recommendations and made a good case for
reversing the recommendation for removing the Cleveland DFAS office.
"I am confident that President Bush will approve these recommendations and
we will be able to vote on these recommendations when Congress comes back from
recess in September."
SOURCE Office of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Web Site:
http://www.house.gov/tubbsjones 1,000 jobs saved; 500 more to come
"...Those present included Kucinich - with his new wife, Elizabeth Harper, whom he wed on Saturday.
They delayed their honeymoon so they could be in town for the decision.
"Now we have even more to celebrate," Kucinich said. "This is wonderful for Cleveland, absolutely wonderful." "
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