On May 11, The Examiner ran an editorial entitled “Two Marylands,” which I believe wrongly concluded that more than 60,000 highly skilled, well-paying jobs headed to Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) through the military?s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process are bad news for Maryland.
The National Security Agency and Fort Meade are the leading collectors of critical intelligence in the U.S. while APG paves the way in military research and training. Not only do Fort Meade and APG keep America ahead of the curve in military technology and intelligence, they offer stable, well-paying jobs for thousands of Marylanders.
Jobs are the gasoline that run Maryland?s economic engine. Closing the door on employers that supposedly pay too well seems like a case of missing the forest for the trees. We need to bring industry to Maryland that offers good salaries to support our families and creates ripple effects in our economy. The Base Realignment and Closure process will do just that.
BRAC will add 18,000 direct jobs and more than 40,000 spin-off jobs to Maryland over the next six years. Many of these professionals will be computer experts, engineers, security clearance officers, media specialists and scientists. By bringing together the best and brightest at NSA and Fort Meade, Maryland will become one of the intelligence epicenters in our country. In addition to boosting federal employment in Maryland, the BRAC process will create new private-sector jobs, spur investment in the transportation system and fuel the economy.
Your editorial argued that although BRAC will create up to 40,000 private-sector jobs, these jobs will be low-paying and will serve solely to support bloated government salaries. This could not be further from the truth. A collaborative study by the Office of Personnel Management and the Hay Group found that on average, Americans working in the private sector receive higher wages than those doing similar work in the public sector. We are fortunate that the jobs created by BRAC will create well-paying jobs in both the private and public sectors. It is a win-win situation.
I am confident that through smart business decisions like this, we can continue to help Maryland?s economy grow and prosper.
Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Democrat, represents the 2nd District of Maryland that includes Fort Meade, the National Security Agency, Aberdeen Proving Ground, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and the Port of Baltimore. The Congressman serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Government Reform Committee in Washington, D.C.
