***** Reformatted. Please distribute. CLINTON/GORE ON DEFENSE CONVERSION: REVITALIZING OUR COMMERCIAL ECONOMY At the end of the second world war, more than 75 million Americans lost their jobs, but our nation made the most of their skills and launched the greatest economic boom the world has ever seen. Now that the Cold War has been won, we cannot leave those who won it out in the cold. Today we have an historic opportunity. The human and physical resources we once dedicated to winning the Cold War can now be rededicated to fulfilling unmet domestic needs. We can lead this country out of recession and get our economy moving again. Bill Clinton' and Al Gore's National Economic Strategy will provide incentives for businesses to create jobs and improve American competitiveness; make a major investment in our children's education and our workers' retraining; and renew our commitment to America's working families. Put people first * Offer early retirement and a pro-rated pension for military personnel with 15 to 20 years of service to encourage voluntary down-sizing. * Encourage states to offer incentives like alternative certification programs for military personnel who retire to take jobs in critical professions like education, health or law enforcement. Military retirement credits should be increased by one year for each year of such employment. * Put 100,000 new police officers on the streets by creating a National Police Corps that offers veterans and active military personnel a chance to become law enforcement officers here at home. * Train military personnel for critical civilian professions through an expansion of the Montgomery G.I. Bill: the new program would enable them to take a one-year educational leave of absence with pay before officially beginning their retirement. * Create an education fund administered by the National Science Foundation to provide grants for professionals formerly engaged in defense work to master the latest developments in critical civilian technology fields such as biotechnology, synthetic materials, renewable energy resources and environmental clean-up. Target defense cuts to infrastructure investments * Transportation: renovate our country's roads, bridges and railroads; create more American jobs by developing a high-speed rail network to link our major cities and commercial hubs; invest in "smart" highway technology to expand the capacity, speed and efficiency of our major roadways; and develop high-tech short-haul aircraft. * Create a national information network to link every home, business, lab, classroom and library by the year 2015; put public records, databases, libraries and educational materials on line for public use to expand access to all kinds of information. * Expand federal efforts to develop environmental technology and create the world's most advanced systems to recycle, treat toxic waste, modernize city sewage systems and clean our air and water; and develop new, clean energy sources. Conduct a national defense jobs inventory * Redeploy the people, skills and technologies which made our defense industry second-to-none during the Cold War to the commercial infrastructure industries we'll need to compete in a global economy. A national defense jobs inventory will match current skills and facilities capabilities with those which will be required for these different projects. Emphasize civilian technology * Increase investment in civilian high-tech applied R&D and manufacturing technologies as the need for military R&D diminishes to create millions of high-wage jobs and smooth our transition from a defense-based to a commercial economy. * Reinvest every dollar that would otherwise be cut from defense R&D and technology industries into federal civilian R&D and generic technology programs. * Create a civilian advanced technology agency modeled after the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Defense's research and development arm. The new agency would sponsor civilian R&D and technology projects, create new jobs for scientists, technicians and engineers, and develop and produce manufacturing expertise for state-of-the-art technologies and innovative new products. * Enact a permanent extension of the R&D tax credit to stimulate private investment in civilian R&D. Aid small businesses * Make special conversion loans and grants available to small business defense contractors through the Small Business Administration (SBA). * Increase funding for the Export-Import Bank, targeted to assist small businesses in developing export markets. * Create a small business Technical Extension Service through the SBA, based on the successful Agriculture Extension and Minnesota's proven Project Outreach Program, to give small businesses easy access to technical expertise. * Offer a 50 percent tax exclusion to small businesses and entrepreneurs who take risks by making long-term investments in new ventures. * Provide a targeted investment tax credit to encourage investment in new plants and productive equipment here at home so that we can convert innovative ideas into new products and compete in the global economy. Assist hard-hit communities * Develop new regulations to enable portions of bases which have been cleaned up environmentally to be transferred to commercial functions prior to the clean-up of the entire base, as long as the transfer is consistent with public safety. * Facilitate the transfer of military land to surrounding communities by selling facilities at slightly lower-than-market rates, as long as the purchaser has demonstrated that the intended long-term use will provide significant employment opportunities to the community that would not otherwise exist should the sale not go through. Purchasers buying land through this program who do not carry through with their intended plan will face financial penalties. Financing conversion * Every dollar we save by down-sizing our armed forces and defense industries will be reinvested during our transition to a post-Cold War economy. Under the National Economic Strategy, we will pay for these and other investments and reduce the national deficit by cutting spending, closing corporate tax loopholes and requiring the very wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. The Record * Senator Gore contributed to a Democratic task force on defense conversion, which led to the Senate Armed Services Committee's recent authorization of $1.2 billion for efforts to address the needs of communities, businesses, and individuals affected by the defense drawdown. * Worked to secure increased funding for the Defense Department's computer and networking technology programs, which will yeild beneficial results for America's computer industry. * As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator Gore helped secure funding for the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology to help small defense manufacturers convert to civilian production so they can successfully compete in civilian markets. * Worked with his Senate colleagues to introduce a package of legislation which forms a forward-looking national technology policy. This initiative will help America develop and commercialize critical technologies, and sharpen our ability to take an invention and turn it into an affordable and usable product.