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Aerospace Suppliers Object To "Buy American" Provision In Visit To Hill WASHINGTON, D.C. July 8-- American aerospace suppliers will tell members of Congress tomorrow that U.S. manufacturing jobs would be lost, not gained, as a net result of the so-called "Buy American" amendments in the FY04 Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1588) as passed by the House of Representatives last month. The Senate declined to include any parallel provisions in its version of the bill. About 40 members of the Suppliers Management Council (SMC) of the Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA) will convene their first annual Washington conference Wednesday with the goal of educating key legislators on the public policy issues of importance to small and medium-sized industry manufacturers. The SMC represents 150 military and civil aerospace transportation sub-contractors that employ approximately 75,000 workers. The suppliers will urge legislators to oppose the H.R. 1588 amendments which require the Defense Department to buy weapons components exclusively from domestic sources. The proposed requirements also set a deadline of 2007 for limiting "major defense acquisition" contracts to bidders with 100 percent American-made machine tools. "The Buy America amendments would put many aerospace vendors out of business by closing the door to manufacturing components, such as silicon chips and flat panel displays that companies can obtain only from offshore suppliers," said Judy Northup, SMC chair and Vice President of Dallas-based Vought Aircraft. Northup noted that the machine tool provision of H.R. 1588 could force many SMC members to make a grim choice between a multi-million dollar re-structuring of production lines or bankruptcy. John W. Douglass, AIA President and CEO, said "American aerospace workers depend on a global supply chain that begins and ends in the United States." He said that while many companies have to buy tools and materials from abroad, the industry as a whole leads the economy in manufactured exports. He added that offshore markets, by consuming 40 percent of U.S. aerospace products annually, create and stabilize jobs at home. SMC delegations will also call for bipartisan support of a Senate-passed amendment to the FY04 FAA Authorization Bill that provides $300 million over six years to modernize the country's air traffic management network. In addition, they will ask Congress to adopt pending bills that streamline the export licensing process for commercial satellite systems and create NASA and FAA scholarship programs to support college students who choose aerospace-related courses of study. The SMC conference, which runs through July 10th, will include symposia on Small Business Administration policies and post-Cold War Pentagon procurement reforms. P.A. Rel 2003-22 05.20.03 -AIA- Contact: Matt Grimison, AIA |
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