Today, the fate of the BAE Sytems plant in Sealy, Texas will be announced. It was reported several weeks ago that the plant would close -- and at least 3,000 jobs would be lost -- because the military defense contract they'd received in the past had been awarded to the Wisconsin company Oshkosh.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul had been notified about the contract renewal in 2007, but -- as far as any evidence suggests -- did nothing to prevent BAE Systesms from losing the contract, or to help BAE Systems lobby for a new contract from the Department of Defense. Since learning, several weeks ago, of the DoD's decision to award the contract to the Wisconsin company, Congressman McCaul has solicited the support of Democrats -- including Congressman Chet Edwards and Houston Mayor Bill White -- to help save the contract through an appeal's process.
Above photo courtesy of Congressman McCaul's office, via the Statesman.
The decision on the appeal will be announced today. Hopefully, the lobbying of Congressman Edwards, Mayor White, and others in the Texas delegation will lead to the DoD's reconsideration of the contract proposal. In the mean time, to learn more about this story, watch the ABC 13 News report from when the story first broke (below), and read about our previous coverage on the story. We'll be sure to post an update once we've learned about the result of the appeal process.
Earlier this week, I wrote about how Michael McCaul's negligence in his duties as Congressman for the 10th Congressional District has, most likely, led to the loss of thousands of jobs in his district. While McCaul's office has tried to claim that they were "blindsided" by the announcement and that they have had "regular" communications with the Department of Defense, there are no facts to back up their claims.
McCaul has never spoken on the floor of the House on behalf ofthe BAE contract. (Source: Library of Congress)
McCaul has not issued any statements or press releases supporting BAE prior to news of the lost contract. (Source: McCaul Website)
McCaul's biggest defense -- that he was "blindsided" and that is why he should not be held responsible -- is incredibly weak. Libby Shaw, writing at Texas Kaos, goes into terrific detail about the role of a Congressman, and how McCaul's failure to publicly advocate for the BAE Systems plant and his apparent unwillingness to fight for their contract renewal is exclusively and unequivocably his fault.
From Texas Kaos, Libby Shaw pens an excellent piece about the role of a Congressman, titled, "How Texas Lost 10,000 Jobs":
As an administrator for a scientific laboratory at an academic institution that is awarded a great number of federal grants, I can tell you that if BAE System's executives, Rick Perry, Michael McCaul, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison forgot about the potential for a 10,000 job loss in Texas, all are grossly and hopelessly negligent.
It is up to the recipient of the funding award to know when the funding will run dry. Grants are awarded for specific periods of time whether it is for five or twenty five years. At academic institutions is up to administrators and the principle investigators (the professors) to do due diligence and prepare renewal requests for ongoing funding when a grant dries up. The renewals are always competitive. Everyone who receives federal funding of any sort should know this. There is always going to be another PI or another company that wants the same money that has been awarded to you. And they will fight like hell to get it. The PIs and companies have to fight like hell to win the award again.
When a grant is about to dry up few funding agencies will send notifications. They don't have to. Admins. and PIs know when the money will run out because when it does we have to find new sources of money to pay research scientists and staff salaries, fund grad student stipends and education, undergrad summer research internships and buy lab equipment. In academe we frequently refer to this process as the grant grind.
A federal funding agency will sometimes send an email notification when they are soliciting new proposals but not always. It us up to the administrators and PIs to find out when proposals are being solicited and to stay on top of when the funding will come to an end. During the term of the funding we have to submit annual reports to the funding agency that discloses financial expenditures and research outcomes and achievements. The funding agency has to report to the Congress how it is spending the people's money.
Where federal grants are concerned it is up to the PI to contact his/her U.S. Representative to inform him/her about a proposal submission and the outcome it promises (i.e. more jobs in Houston, more students in the fields science and engineering, the potential for job creation outside the academic institution). It should be the job of the U.S. Rep. to do due diligence and lobby for the companies and academic institutions within his/her district. Like the PIs and company executives Representatives should fight like hell in Washington to bring the bacon home to their district.
And this is where Michael McCaul and Senators Hutchison and Cornyn failed miserably. Not only did all fail to fight for the bacon and its 10,000 jobs, all completely forgot about it.
Next Monday, December 14, we will know the final fate of the contract for BAE Systems. Hopefully, the lobbying that has been done recently by Democrats Chet Edwards and Bill White will result in the opportunity for BAE Systems to renew their contract, or at least bid for it again (or at least find another contract where thousands of Texans won't lose their jobs). We'll be sure to let our readers know the result of next Monday's decision.
Texas Republican Michael McCaul has fumbled away nearly 3,000 jobs in his district, according to the latest research put together by the Lone Star Project. McCaul -- who did not have any written communication with the Department of Defense prior to the announcement of the contract BAE Systems lost (Source) -- is now facing tough scrutiny about what, if any, work he did to keep what had been, until recently, the largest defense contract in his district.
The Lone Star Project knows that McCaul hasn't done at least the following four things:
An official letter from the Department of Defense obtained by the Lone Star Project states that no record exists of Michael McCaul contacting the Department of Defense during the contract review process to advocate for BAE systems or to request fair consideration that the contract be renewed. (Source: DOD Freedom of Information Act Request, 10/14/2009)
McCaul failed to appear before the House Budget Committee on “Member’s Day” where Representatives can advocate for programs important to their district. (Source: House Budget Committee Witness List )
McCaul did not go to the House floor a single time to speak on behalf of the Texas/BAE contract or to defend Texas workers. (Source: Library of Congress)
McCaul did not make any public statements or issue any press releases supporting BAE or the nearly 3,000 jobs covered under the contract. (Source: McCaul Website)
What specifically did you communicate to the Army in "Late 2007?" Was it by mail or telephone? Can you produce all copies of your communication?
If you were informed of the potential problem in 2007, what did you to to advocate for the Sealy plant officially and unofficially?
Did you formally notify and ask for assistance from your fellow local, State, and Federal officeholders regarding the potential job loss?
You claimed that, "My office has been in regular contact with BAE Systems prior to and during the rebid process." Can you produce any documents that confirm "regular" communications?
Since being elected to Congress from the 10th District, but prior to the loss of the BAE contract, have you spoken even once on the House floor promoting the quality of work and the importance of the mission at BAE Systems plant in Sealy?
Written communication “is not how it works,” McCaul said. “It’s a little naive” to say so.
Michael McCaul never thought to get anything in writing?!?! Is it because he's just that foolish and irresponsible, or because he is just so used to communicating through right-wing radio -- after all, his father-in-law is the one who owns Clear Channel, the corporation that is both Michael McCaul's single largest political contributor and the one that has given a $100 million signing bonus to McCaul's best friend, Rush Limbaugh.
No written communication? Not so much as an email? That’s pretty strange. Did anyone take notes from the phone conversations they had, or minutes at the meetings? [...]
McCaul’s statement here seems in conflict with this:
BAE employees expressed concern to McCaul aides around late 2007 that the Army was seeking bids for the production of the trucks made in Sealy. Many of the trucks had already been made, and they found it unusual that the Army would seek bids for the rest of those trucks. McCaul’s office relayed that concern to the Army.
In response, Army officials praised BAE’s work but said they would move forward with their plan to seek competitive bids, McCaul spokesman Mike Rosen said.
Surely BAE must have had a reason to be worried beyond the obvious fact that having a competitor means the possibility of losing. What was McCaul doing between then and September when the contract was officially awarded? Maybe he was working at it, and maybe there was nothing he could have done. I just have a hard time understanding how this could have caught people like McCaul off guard.
Understanding the actions McCaul has failed to take is crucial -- you have to realize just how huge losing this contract really was. From the LSP report:
For 17 years, BAE Systems in Sealy, Texas, has built military trucks called Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) for the US Army in a plant that sits in the heart of the 10th Congressional District. BAE Systems is the single largest defense contractor in District 10. (Source: USASpending.gov) The billion dollar contract was recently taken from BAE and awarded to Oshkosh Corp. in Wisconsin costing McCaul's constituents thousands of good paying jobs. McCaul has yet to produce any documentation that he fought for the Sealy jobs before the contract was awarded or even took the most basic steps to promote the fine work done at the plant.
Michael McCaul's negligence cost his district and the state of Texas those jobs. It's that simple. While they spend the next few days trying to act extremely busy to pretend that they care, they simply failed to protect the largest defense contract -- and the 3,000 working jobs that came with it. Michael McCaul is a failure as a Congressman, and he will be replaced in 2010.
Unfortunately for Texas, the Pentagon decided to shift an Army truck building contract from here to Wisconsin. Since 1991, BAE Systems in Sealy has been manufacturing trucks for the U.S. Army.
According to the Houston Chronicle Republican lawmakers and BAE officials were completely unaware of the threat posed by our competitors in Wisconsin.
The Pentagon's decision to shift the production of Army trucks from Texas to Wisconsin after 17 years caught Texas' elected officials by surprise, raising questions about overconfidence, a loss of political clout and the impact of economic incentives provided to the winning company by Wisconsin's Democratic governor.
Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry and the 34-member Senate-House delegation are rallying to salvage a deal for BAE Systems that could be worth $2.6 billion and sustain 10,000 direct and indirect jobs around the sprawling truck manufacturing plant in Sealy.
Good luck boys. It's kind of too late to salvage anything, including your humongous egos. If our esteemed Republican lawmakers hadn't been too busy lying to and scaring their constituents at teabagging hate fests this summer and fall, perhaps they would have time to think about the plant in Sealy. And what were those top executives at BAE Systems thinking given the tough times in which we now find ourselves? Companies and academic institutions are engaged in a near dual to the death competition for federal funding.
