By
Amy Dominello, Media General News Service
.
Published: Thu, April 17, 2008 - 4:15 pm
WASHINGTON - Members of Congress and union leaders lashed out again Thursday at the decision by the U.S. Air Force to use a team that includes a European company to build tankers at Mobile's Brookley Field.Lawmakers from Kansas and Washington state decried the contract at a press conference on Capitol Hill, saying it would take away jobs from workers at Boeing Co. Much of Boeing’s work on the tanker would have occurred in Kansas and Washington.
In February, the Air Force chose to award the $35 billion contract to replace 179 air-to-air refueling tankers to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
The contract will result in a tanker assembly plant in Mobile, creating 2,000 jobs. Parts of the plane will be made overseas.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the decision “an economic stimulus package for Europe.”
“If we don’t preserve our domestic aerospace industry we are going to lose it” she said. “… We should not be paying other countries to take our technology and make it their own.”
Seven members of Congress also sent a letter to President Bush Thursday expressing their concerns that EADS received illegal foreign subsidies in the development of civilian aircraft, a charge the World Trade Organization is also investigating.
Lawmakers at the press conference said they may also bring up the issue as Congress mulls over defense spending in the coming weeks.
Boeing has filed a formal protest of the tanker decision citing "irregularities" in the competition. Air Force and Pentagon leaders have defended it as a fair and legal competitive process.
Alabama congressional representatives have also defended the decision.
Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com
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Read the delegation's letter to President Bush.
Cantwell: Tanker Contract Does Not Add Up
American Tax Dollars Are Going to Waste and Stimulating the Economy of a Foreign Country
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) sent the following letter, with seven of her colleagues, to President Bush regarding the recent announcement by the United States Air Force (USAF) to award the aerial refueling tanker contract to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), parent company to Airbus.
Earlier today, Cantwell participated in a press conference with members of the Washington and Kansas Congressional delegations and representatives from SPEEA and IFPTE. During the press conference, Cantwell continued to question how the flawed process led to a flawed decision that is wrong for our men and women in uniform, and unsafe for the American worker.
[The text of the letter follows below]
April 17, 2008
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We write with strong concerns regarding the recent announcement by the United States Air Force (USAF) to award the aerial refueling tanker contract to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), parent company to Airbus.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is challenging the European Union’s use of unfair and illegal subsidies provided to Airbus for the development of a number of large civilian aircraft models before the World Trade Organization. At the same time, the USAF awarded the very company that is at the heart of this trade challenge one of the largest military contracts in history. Further, the Northrop/EADS tanker, the KC-30, is based on the A330 platform, which was developed and financed through billions of dollars in illegal foreign government subsidies. Of the various Airbus aircraft cited in the WTO challenge, the A330, in conjunction with the A340, received a disproportionately large part of European subsidies, including almost $5 billion in Launch Aid, which is the crux of the U.S. WTO trade complaint. It would be difficult to conclude that these subsidies did not have some pricing effect on the Northrop/EADS offering.
Awarding an illegally subsidized foreign company with the second largest defense contract in U.S. history is contrary to efforts to level the playing field for U.S. companies around the world. The USAF’s decision not only sends the wrong signal and causes confusion, it demonstrates that the right hand of the government does not know what the left hand is doing. Further, it may have unintended effects on U.S. enforcement efforts against illegal foreign subsidies in many sectors from aerospace, softwood lumber, steel, auto parts, to semiconductors. The inconsistency of the tanker decision may indicate a lack of seriousness to challenges raised before the WTO in other cases involving illegal subsidies.
We recognize that the intersection of interests between defense and trade matters is complex and challenging, but it is incredibly puzzling that two agencies of our government would come to such starkly different conclusions in terms of American competitiveness.
Sincerely,
Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Max Baucus (D-MT), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-MO)
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The other side of this story does not seem to get enough play and that bothers me. I used to listen to this guy Michael Savage on 710 while driving home each day and he really went off on the tanker deal. It was obvious he did not know the details, or he did not want to give a balanced report about the contract for his own reasons. I can’t stand to hear the fanatic now and switch to music instead.