Boehner and Turner Ask Obama to Stop stimulus from Moving Jobs from One State to Another

Release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) and Congressman Michael Turner (R-Dayton) today sent a letter to President Obama asking him to take action to stop federal “stimulus” dollars from being used to lure jobs away from one state to another. Boehner and Turner sent the letter to the President after learning that “stimulus” dollars were apparently used to help convince NCR to move its worldwide headquarters from Ohio to Georgia, resulting in major job losses for Ohio’s Miami Valley region.

Below are key excerpts; full text of the letter appears below and is available here (PDF).

“Recently, the state of Ohio has faced significant economic challenges with the loss of thousands of jobs across the state. Many of these job losses resulted from the closure of General Motors and Delphi Corporation facilities in the Dayton region, the loss of the DHL air hub in Wilmington, Ohio, and the closure of other businesses statewide. The closure of NCR’s worldwide headquarters represents further economic losses for Ohio and the Miami Valley region.

“We think you would agree that federal stimulus dollars should not be used to allow one state to gain jobs at the expense of another state. It appears federal stimulus funds played a role in NCR’s decision to relocate jobs from Ohio and centralize its operations in Georgia. Certainly luring jobs away from one state to another state violates the spirit of this law. We respectfully request that you direct Vice President Joe Biden, who has been tasked to oversee all stimulus spending, to take the steps necessary to prevent this from happening to other regions that are in economic peril.”

NOTE: Boehner and Turner joined with every U.S. House Republican in voting against the so-called stimulus bill in part due to Democratic leaders rushing the bill to a vote less than 12 hours after it was written in the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi denying lawmakers the opportunity to read the legislation. Since the bill’s passage in February, Ohio has suffered several “stimulus” missteps, among them:

· $57 million slush-fund to study projects that may never get build instead while denying funds for shovel-ready projects;

· $1.1 million to clean up groundwater at a Cold War-era weapons facility that was cleaned up two years ago;

· $1.2 million to pay for Columbus police recruits’ salaries to the end of the year. While the City of Columbus never was able to explain how it would pay for those officers next year, that may be moot as the city may cut their jobs due to lack of funding. NOTE: President Obama attended the graduation ceremony.