Dear Citizens and Elected Officials:
I've just returned from handing my Congressman, John Delaney (D, D-6, Maryland) the proposal which follows below. He was on a constituent outreach effort in Frostburg, in the mountains of Western Maryland, a region that needs economic and environmental help, a region that has suffered through the coal era and now is facing more environmental damage with looming fracking for natural gas. There is a better way to jobs than a new round of damage that fracking will deliver.
The meeting room at Frostburg University was filled with about 30 constituents, who are happy for the chance for a one-to-one meeting with the Congressman, being more than a hundred miles from both Annapolis and Washington, DC. You can always get an "Amen" from citizens out here by noting how little our voices are heard in these capitals.
Here is what I handed the Congressman:
October 4, 2015
PROPOSAL FOR A CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC) Presented to Congressman John Delaney (D, D-6) at the Frostburg Meeting
This is a much needed revival of what FDR initiated as one of his very first legislative acts in the brutal year of 1933, just after he was sworn in.
The crucial question is: should this start as a national program, or begin on a smaller scale, folded inside the existing Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), which would need legislation to amend its purposes? (Editors Note: The federal budget for the ARC dated May 2015 for the 2016 Fiscal year was $105 million for all non-highway funding purposes, which divided by the 13 states, comes out to just over $8 million per state. Even if all that money went for a regional CCC, it would only be a decent start.)
The case for a region short of jobs and with a growing and alarming drug problem is clear to all. Private capital is searching the globe for the highest returns and the lowest, “race to the bottom” social “context.” Indeed, based on this behavior, perhaps there should be a tax on American multinationals keyed off the value of their overseas operations.
Should this be a two-tiered mission? One being environmental restoration to a region heavily damaged by past coal and other industrial and forestry abuses to air, water and habitats, the second being to restore damaged and decaying infrastructure: schools, roads, parks, all manner of public facilities...including sidewalks.
Where would the creation of new green alternative energy system fit into such a mission? Job skills and training, just like the old CCC, except without the military encampment setting; more like a college campus base from which the CCC labor force leaves and comes back after a well-paid day’s work at $15.00 per hour and medical and family leave benefits. A portion of wages to be sent to families? (Editors Note: Would the AFL-CIO help - or feel threatened?)
Who should oversee it? Well, first we need a survey and inventory of what is to be done; Appalachian Science Labs, college faculty and departments, plus all the other relevant institutions which now ask for “grants” under the ARC “mechanisms.”
This survey should be part of the funding and set-up, and should be done with an eye towards a modest initial budget, but the second “reach for the October Skies” (as in the inspiring movie about some aspiring students from the region) part should anticipate the next large national economic crisis, which is not far-away. Practical and a bit visionary.
Who should supervise and run? My nominee is the US Fish and Wildlife Service with support from the relevant state equivalents, environmental and wildlife.
That’s enough food for thought.
I just wanted to get the idea rolling and to prepare constructively for the next crisis. Our region cries out for this. The existing ARC is underfunded; its mission statement, and its operation, is falling behind the curve of need and economic and environmental necessity.
Sincerely,
billofrights Frostburg, MD