Congressman Nye To Block Closing Of JFCOM Until More Info Is Gathered

Even in the midst of a tough re-election campaign, Congressman Glenn Nye is still working to keep the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk open. JFCOM accounts for 42% of the 2nd District's GDP.

"We've been working together as a Virginia coalition since day one when we found out the Secretary of Defense wanted to close JFCOM," said Nye in an interview. "I've met with Governor McDonnell, Randy Forbes and Bobby Scott and we've united as a team and made pretty good progress pushing back on the issue."

Nye says it is Congress' job to decide whether JFCOM stays open. He also says there have been no studies to show how much money will be saved by closing the command.

"Congress makes decisions about funding the Defense Department and anything they would like to change they have to get funding," explained Nye. "We're not going to allow them to close the command without doing an analysis that shows how it could actually save any money and how we could maintain those important military functions of JFCOM without hurting our military."

According to the most recent poll sponsored by Christopher Newport University, The Virginian-Pilot and 13 News of likely voters, opponent Scott Rigell leads Nye by one half of a percentage point. Other polls have shown Rigell's lead is much greater. Rigell has also said he will fight to keep JFCOM open.
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