Kerry’s Promises

Stopping Bush Initiatives

• No privatization of air traffic control. (March 1 letter to John Carr, president of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers)
• Halt President Bush's competitive-sourcing initiative. (Robert Gordon, Kerry domestic policy director)
• Reverse Bush's efforts to give the military a higher annual pay raise than civilian federal workers. (Robert Gordon)
• Provide collective bargaining rights to employees at the Defense and Homeland Security departments. (Robert Gordon)

Defense

• Add 40,000 soldiers to the active-duty Army, double the size of U.S. Special Forces, increase civil affairs personnel and military police. (June 3 speech)
• Suspend the Pentagon's base closure process, scheduled to start next year. (March statement to Portsmouth, N.H., Herald)

Homeland Security

• Fund 100,000 new firefighters. (Jan. 3 speech)
• Create a Community Defense Service, with hundreds of thousands of volunteers, to assist their communities in the event of a terrorist attack. (Kerry homeland security plan)
• Install a system to track and secure shipping containers. (Dec. 17, 2003, speech)
• Hire more inspectors for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. (Dec. 17 speech)
• Appoint a White House-level national coordinator for nuclear terrorism and counter-proliferation.(June 1 speech)

Governmentwide Management

• Cut the number of political appointees and ban bonuses for political appointees. (Aug. 28, 2003, speech)
• Require agencies to reduce energy costs by 20 percent by 2020. (Aug. 28 speech)
• Eliminate 100,000 federal contractor jobs. (April 7 speech)
• Cut administrative costs at federal agencies by 5 percent. (April 7 speech)
• Use the federal procurement process to steer contracts away from contractors that incorporate in foreign countries to escape U.S. taxes. (Aug. 28 speech; Jason Furman, Kerry economic policy director)
• Freeze the federal travel budget. (April 7 speech)
• Bring government spending down to the level of the gross domestic product under President Clinton. (Aug. 28 speech)
• Ban political appointees who leave government from lobbying their former colleagues for five years. (Jan. 5 speech)