Congressmen Chris Collins and Brian Higgins stood side-by-side in Buffalo Monday in opposition of a downsizing plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Higgins, a Democrat, and Collins, a Republican, say the Army Corps is proposing to move some of the functions conducted in Buffalo to Louisville and Detroit. They say the move could affect more than 200 local jobs.
"There's been no formal announcement of this. We caught word of it and we want to preempt it from occurring," Higgins says.
Collins and Higgins have issued a joint letter in opposition to the commanding general. They say this consolidation could impede projects along the Great Lakes and in Buffalo.
"We have a lot of projects that will be undertaken here in Western New York. We just recently announced the dredging of the harbors in Wilson and Olcott, as well as Oak Orchard in Orleans [County]. So here we're going to start the dredging of these harbors that haven't been done in over 15 years, that'd going to require people to oversee that. They should be located here," Collins says.
Speaking at Canalside, Higgins says any relocation of jobs would be a detriment to continuing progress along Buffalo's waterfront.
"We need the dredging activities in this area. We have a beautiful, emerging waterfront from its old industrial uses to new recreational uses," Higgins says. "We have tens of millions of dollars being invested into the cleanup of the Buffalo River, which is a navigable waterway."
One Buffalo Army Corps employee, James Dean, says it is unclear how many of the 280 employees would be relocated.
Dean told WBFO he suspects it would be less than half, but noted any losses would be disruptive to their work.
"Right now it looks like it's our contracting division and what they call the general and administrative support functions," said James Dean.
Dean is union president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2930 that represents the area Army Corps of Engineers employees.
Dean said he was initially surprised by the proposal.
"These are functions of people that are needed here in this region, in this area," said Dean. "Right now they don't have any answers."