Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this amendment is very simple. It is to help American workers as defense-related factories wind down production. The intent of the amendment is to allocate an additional $10 million to the Office of Economic Adjustment from the general operations and maintenance funds.

The Office of Economic Adjustment helps communities across America when a factory shuts down. Over the last decade of war, middle class factory workers have stepped up to the plate to make sure our troops on the battlefield have had the weapons and equipment they have needed. As we transition away from two long wars and as defense production lines slow down, we cannot leave these workers with only pink slips in their hands. That is where the Office of Economic Adjustment comes in.

This little known but very important office in the Pentagon helps communities that would otherwise be devastated when a factory shuts its doors for the last time. The Office of Economic Adjustment provides grants and technical assistance to communities so that they can develop their own strategies to transition to a postwar economy. Just this month, the Office of Economic Adjustment provided grants to Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. Nearly 4,000 defense workers have lost their jobs in these States since 2012, but thanks to a grant from the Office of Economic Adjustment, a regional Defense Manufacturing Assistance Program is underway to help them find new areas of livelihood.

Simply put, the Office of Economic Adjustment helps hardworking Americans keep their jobs, so I urge my colleagues to support this modest amendment to create jobs and help the Americans who keep our men and women in uniform equipped with what they need.

I would also like to submit for the Record a good article from Roll Call which carefully details this issue of slowing down the wartime economy. The title of it reads, ``Don't Cut Programs that Help Communities Adjust to Pentagon Spending Reductions.'' It is dated June 9, 2014, and it is written by Miriam Pemberton and William Hartung.

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