Four Questions for the Next President

From Marc Korman:

Barring an unforeseen event, Maryland’s February 12th primary is actually going to make a difference in determining who the Democratic presidential nominee is. Better yet, the only other primaries that day are in DC and Virginia, so the candidates should be focused on our area. This is a contrast to other years when Maryland’s late primary and secure Democratic status makes it irrelevant. Like Iowa with ethanol and Nevada with Yucca, we now have the opportunity to put our own issues on the agenda of the next president.

Here are four questions we in Montgomery County should ask the candidates. These issues will not decide who the next president is or receive a lot of media attention, but they will help us get a small place for issues that matter to Montgomery County on the next president’s immense agenda. There are plenty of issues with a local slant, like the effect of national immigration policy on places like Gaithersburg or farm policy’s effect on the Chesapeake Bay, but the four issues below are focused on Montgomery County.

1. What will your Administration do to reorient federal policy towards transit?

Recently, the Federal Transit Administration torpedoed Dulles Rail. We need to ensure this does not happen when and if we decide to move forward with the Purple Line or Corridor Cities Transitway. There is also a need for increased investment in the Metro system, which is responsible for getting 1/3 of the federal workforce to their jobs. Metro is in dire need of a fixed revenue source to continue operating, which is something most big city transit systems have, but Metro does not.

2. What is your management agenda for the federal workforce?

There are 2.9 million federal civilian employees, tens of thousands of whom live in Montgomery County. President Bush has waged an effort to outsource and privatize the federal workforce, most aggressively at the Department of Defense, where contractor dependency and efforts to reduce collective bargaining have become the norm. Within the next ten years, 600,000 federal workers will be eligible to retire and there are few people in the pipeline to replace them. The ongoing issue of whether there should be pay parity between civilian and military government employees during their annual raises will also continue to play out in the budget cycles ahead.

3. What is your agenda for the National Institutes of Health and other federal funded research?

Montgomery County is home to the 18,000 employee National Institutes of Health and other government labs contributing to the nation’s $140 billion Research & Development budget. Although NIH’s budget doubled between 1998 and 2003, funding has been about flat at $28.5 billion for the last four years, not even matching inflation. In addition, the county has a vibrant biotech industry and the next President will have to decide whether to revoke President Bush’s Executive Order limiting stem cell research. States like Maryland, which have invested in stem cell research, will have to be prepared for the change this may bring.

4. How will you help communities deal with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process?

Due to BRAC, Walter Reed in DC and the Bethesda Naval Center will be consolidated into one facility, adding 2,500 jobs, doubling the patient load, and increasing the amount of visitors in an area of Montgomery County which already has transportation challenges. There is an anticipated need of $70 million in transportation projects in Bethesda to support this massive influx, including widening lanes, adding Metro entrances, studying the possibility of a new Beltway exit, and other projects. Montgomery County has also failed thus far in its efforts to secure Defense Access Road funds to access Pentagon dollars to improve the roads they are using.

These are just a few federal questions with a local focus the presidential candidates should be asked before February 12^th. But if you have others ideas, please post them here.