Bill Clinton: “In the case of south Dade County, as you know, there have been people for years who thought that you could have a…”

“In the case of south Dade County, as you know, there have been people for years who thought that you could have a mega-port there, a big commercial airport, perhaps even a newer and bigger airport for passenger traffic, too. And what I think we need to do is to rebuild the infrastructure; that's what I'm saying. Try to maintain some basic functions there, the Guard function, the Reserve function, the DEA function. I hope I can get an approval to go along with that, and then see what happens as we explore possibilities with the people who live in south Dade County. The only thing I want to point out to you is that it is an immensely valuable resource, and that one of the areas of our economy that everyone projects to grow in the next 10 years is the area of commercial aviation, not just passengers but also freight, mail, and other things. So I think that one of the things we know for sure is, if we don't rebuild the strip and we don't rebuild the control tower, nothing good can occur. We know that for sure. We know, too, in my judgment that the Federal Government has an obligation to do that. Let me just give you--if you go back--even if let's say the whole thing were going to be shut down in 3 years under the base closing. No dual use, no nothing. Every other place in the country with a base that's about to be shut down has a resource right now that could be turned over to the local community that's worth a lot of money. The Homestead base is not worth what it ought to be until it's rebuilt. So what I want to do is to focus on rebuilding it so that it is a valuable asset--the airstrip and the control tower, at least, and maybe some other facilities there--and then see what we can do, see what we can do in terms of joint use, and see what the community wants to do in terms of potential uses. I do have some specific ideas, but I think, frankly, that the people down there will have better ideas than I do. Haiti”