Transcript of Interview with Congressman Jim Moran

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th) sat down with Patch on Wednesday amid a busy session of House voting at the U.S. Capitol to speak about the BRAC process. Click for our story, and read on for the full transcript of the interview. 

Is the Mark Center move unavoidable? Are we looking at a forgone conclusion here?

The army has invested more than $1 billion in that building, so it seems to me it’s unreasonable to assume that we’re going to able to prevent it from being filled at some point in time … 

“At some point in time…” September is rapidly approaching—

Well, my hope is that we can delay filling it until the transportation infrastructure is in place. There are two things that we have currently pending. One is language in the Military Construction Appropriations Bill, a subcommittee on which I serve, that prevents the Pentagon from using more than 1,000 parking spaces in the building or around the building.

Another is language that I expect to be included in the defense authorization, within days, that will delay the BRAC implementation by another year. Both of those I have been working on now for quite some time and I think both of them are going to be included in their respective pieces of legislation…

What does that delay mean exactly…

It means that the Pentagon would be able to leave the Mark Center building open for another year, and it would give us another year to work on addressing the transportation situation.

Would [the Army] be able to extend the leased spaces at Crystal City?

They have to look to see whether they can do that, and that’s what I think they should be doing.

When the Inspector General’s report was released, you were trying to entice local governments to take action, but it doesn’t seem that any of them are. Are there any other triggers that might move them to step up at this point?

I can’t speak for local governments. All I can do is kind of cajole them and suggest things. If I were mayor I would have moved forward with a suit based upon proven deficiencies in the transportation study, but I respect Mayor Euille’s decision and that of the City Manager. I’m not going to second guess them, they have other things to be concerned about, including the cost of litigation.

During the selection process, the Alexandria City staff stated and signed a letter that they saw no significant impact to traffic or the environment. What do you think about that letter?

I am very much aware of that letter, but I have no comment.

How long will it take for these communities to adjust to the massive influx in traffic, and do you have any advice for commuters who take I-395 every morning?

I’m not going to try to sugarcoat the situation. This is going to be horrible from a traffic standpoint. The people who live in the area are going to be extremely adversely affected by it, as will all of the 200,000 commuters who live outside of Seminary Road and have to commute inside Seminary Road. My guess is it’s going to put an extra hour on their commute.

Do you think such a bottleneck of traffic right next to the nation’s capital is a matter of national security?

Well, I think it’s more a matter of national security to have all of these folks concentrated in one building within easy access of any of the 200,000 vehicles that pass by that building and could reach it with a .50 caliber sniper rifle or an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) or any number of other weapons. I think they were much safer in commercial office buildings where they were not so obvious.

What was the right answer to this problem? How could this have been handled correctly?

Well, both [former Virginia] Congressman [Tom] Davis and I voted against the BRAC recommendations. I requested a Corps of Engineers study, and it showed that there would be a three- to four-hour backup trying to get onto the base and up to a two-hour backup on I-95. So the Army then conceded that they were going to have to make some adjustments.

At that point, Mr. Davis and I put in language, legislation that transferred the GSA (General Services Administration) warehouse site to the Army, and we were successful. That’s where it should have been located – on a metro site. But for a number of reasons – some of which I can’t go into in public – they didn’t pursue that, and that’s how we wound up with this Mark Center building.

If they weren’t going to locate at the GSA site, which was optimal … they should have located at the Victory Center site at Eisenhower Avenue. That was the second-best option, and they say they rejected that because the owners of the building and the brokers raised their price because they thought they had a lock on it, raised it as much as $200 million. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s the excuse they’re offering.

Nobody is talking about the support contractors that are coming in addition to the thousands of employees who will be moving. What is that going to do?

They’re not going to be able to get there. And, in fact, a couple of the large agencies are probably looking to move out, such as CNA (Center for Naval Analysis) and IDA (Institute for Defense Analyses).

Have you talked to members of Congress in other parts of the country where BRAC is impacting those communities? Are they sharing ideas?

I have talked with other members on the Military Appropriations Subcommittee. I have testified before the Armed Services Committee and that’s why we have the language that is being taken care of, I just can’t release it publicly right now, but I should be able to within a day. It’s going to put into law the authorization to delay the BRAC move for an additional year. The only way you can delay it is by law because it’s a legal requirement to move by September of this year.

Is there anything you personally would have done differently throughout this process to achieve an ideal situation?

I don’t know what more I could have done. I have explored every angle and my staff has devoted more time to this issue than anything else. Maybe if I had gotten John McCain out of the process, because he kept killing the parking cap legislation for the last two years saying it was an earmark. I don’t know what I could have done other than get him elected president. That would have gotten him out of the mess, but I don’t think that would have been fair to the rest of the country.

Have you shown McCain the Inspector General’s report?

He doesn’t care. It’s just kind of punitive on his part. He’s been the biggest impediment to me throughout this process. He has a staff person that lives in Alexandria that just takes a very different attitude.

If you could sum up your feelings about BRAC in an adjective, what would it be?

It’s disgust at the decision makers for letting this happen. It’s a sense of impending chaos when these people move. It’s a disappointment. It’s a whole combination – I’m angry, disappointed, and I just have to say disgusted with some of the people who, either through indifference or wrongheadedness, have allowed this to happen.

Who are we talking about here?

There are number of people that are sources of disappointment but I’m not going to get into any personal attacks. I’ve got to do what I feel I need to do and get some help from corners where we need it.