Buddy Carter, U.S. House of Representatives, First District Georgia
Last week I shared that I viewed critical documents from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) detailing that the Obama Administration agrees that the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick is more efficient and more effective for the State Department’s diplomatic security training than building duplicative facilities at the proposed Foreign Affairs Training Center (FAST-C) at Fort Pickett, Virginia. While the report is not classified, the OMB has thus far refused to publically release the documents.
This week, I called on the OMB to make the documents public.
The Obama Administration’s stonewalling of Congress and the American people on this issue has got to come to an end. The White House’s own analysis lays bare any illusion that building a duplicative new facility is a better use of taxpayer dollars than maximizing existing resources. Releasing this report would better inform the debate over how to best meet the training needs of those protecting American outposts around the world. Continuing to stifle congressional oversight serves to do little more than delay bringing this important training online.
This week I also demanded answers from the State Department and the General Services Administration about their decision to move forward with the Fort Pickett plan even after the OMB found FLETC was the better option. The General Services Administration and the Department of State issued a Record of Decision in May recommending construction of a new Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FAST-C) at Fort Pickett, Virginia. While the document asserts the agencies reviewed 70 alternative sites to conduct the training, it makes no mention of the OMB’s head-to-head comparison identifying FLETC as the better location.
In a letter to Secretary of State John F. Kerry and General Services Administration Director Denise Turner Roth, I requested copies of all communications, phone calls, analyses and reports justifying their decision.
Facts do not back up the Obama Administration’s attempts to build a duplicative new facility. It’s time to put politics aside and get this urgent training up and running at FLETC where training could start tomorrow.
