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Shelby To Gates: Tanker Needed Now
By Tiffany Craig Special Assignment Reporter
Published: Wed, March 05, 2008 - 8:30 pm
Last Updated: Wed, March 05, 2008 - 8:47 pm
Last Updated: Wed, March 05, 2008 - 8:47 pm
Tiffany Craig
Sue Payton is the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. "We have a very capable new KC-45A. I will tell you that when Congressman Tiahrt and I go out to the golf course to T it up, we either bring our A game or we don't bring our A game. Northrop Grumman brought it's A game based on the law that I must abide by."
The hearing on Capital Hill comes after lawmakers questioned why the Pentagon would award such an important contract to a team that included a foreign company. Much of the backlash has come from leaders in Kansas and Washington State.
The Boeing tanker would have been assembled in Everett, Washington and militarized in Wichita, Kansas.
Congressman Tiahrt from Kansas says it just doesn't make sense. "The American public is rightfully outraged by this decision. I am outraged by this decision. It's outsourcing our national security! An American tanker should be built by an American company with American workers. Choosing a French tanker over an American tanker doesn't make sense to the American people and it doesn't make sense to me."
Senator Richard Shelby from Tuscaloosa says this tanker is not French, it's American! He says the hearing was rhetoric. "The Congress does not and has never awarded contracts to people and should never be in that business! It's the Air Force's job. I think it's just sour grapes. People are upset."
Air Force officials made it clear that creating jobs and assembly locations are (by law) not a part of the decision process.
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