Keep American Military Manufacturing in American Hands
In our current environment of hyper-partisan politics, it's rare that Republicans and Democrats publicly agree on anything (particularly moving into the heat of a presidential election). However, on March 12, 2012, a bipartisan group of senators, including John Cornyn (R-TX), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) penned an unexpected, yet necessary, letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) supports these senators and calls on the Obama administration to explain to the American people its reasons for taking such actions, which threaten the safety and security of thousands of men and women currently serving in the United States military.
The Associated Press recently summarized the key points made by these senators in their bipartisan letter:
"U.S. taxpayers should not be put in a position where they are indirectly subsidizing the mass murder of Syrian civilians. The sizeable proceeds of this Defense Department contracts are helping to finance a firm that is essentially complicit in mass atrocities in Syria, especially in light of Russia's history of forgiving huge amounts of Syria's debt on arms sales, as occurred in 2005 during President Assad's state visit to Moscow."
The reference is the DOD's no-bid contract agreement to buy 21 Mi-17 Helicopters from Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport for the Afghan Military. The deal is worth between $375 million and almost $1 billion.
The senators' concerns are well founded for a host of reasons including, Russia's nearly $1 billion in arms sales to Syria last year, and a January deal by Syrian president Bashar Assad to purchase 36 Syrian combat aircraft from Rosoboronexport, which until recently was under U.S. sanctions for assisting Iran. The senators wrote that "continuing this robust business relationship with Rosoboronexport would undermine U.S. policy on Syria and undermine U.S. efforts to stand with the Syrian people."
These concerns come on the heels of a similar letter to the Obama administration from a group of members of the House of Representatives regarding the Defense Department's proclivity for no-bid contracts to foreign companies partially owned by hostile governments also tied to the Iranian government.
Led by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), members of Congress sent a letter on February 6th to Secretary Panetta demanding an explanation for the Obama administration's award of a no-bid contract to Brazilian owned Embraer to build military aircraft under the Light Air Support (LAS) program. Embraer, currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly violating bribery and corruption laws while seeking foreign government contracts, was awarded the no-bid contract. This was directly following the administration's abrupt disqualification of a proven American military manufacturer, Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft, from bidding on the almost $1 billion contract.
On February 28th, the administration rescinded its contract award to Embraer, and opened an investigation into a procurement process described by a senior United States Air Force official as a major "embarrassment." The administration made the appropriate move to put aside its no-bid contract after excluding a well-qualified American manufacturer whose engagement would create much needed jobs here in the U.S.
Taxpayers deserve to know why the administration would disqualify a proven American company with a strong record of training and supporting America's military, in favor of corrupt foreigners supplying arms to hostile nations against whom we may be called to defend.
The administration's lack of transparency and its failure to provide Americans with even basic answers to these troubling questions is inexcusable. A failed procurement process that unites leading Republicans and Democrats in questioning the administration's basic decision-making should be a very strong signal that defense procurement requires a full and complete overhaul.
