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Suppliers Protest Buy American Provision In Letter To Congress WASHINGTON, D.C., August 29-- Seventeen members of the Aerospace Industries Association's Supplier Management Council have asked the Chair and the Ranking Minority Member of the of the Senate Armed Services Committee to oppose the Industrial Base amendments in the House Version of the FY04 Defense Authorization Act. (Title VIII of H.R.1588). In an August 28 letter to Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Carl Levin (D-MI), the suppliers said the Title VIII amendments, by requiring the Defense Department to buy major weapons hardware and electronic components exclusively from domestic sources, would cause a wave of foreign trade retaliation. In addition, the Title VIII provision forcing the Pentagon to rely on contractors only with 100 percent U.S.-made machine tools would cause dozens of companies to stop doing business with the military or to go bankrupt as a result of the high costs of re-structuring entire production lines. The suppliers also pointed out that the amendments would have significant implications for an industry that exports 40 percent of its products, and remains the largest net exporter in the nation. The letter represents the first collective written statement of AIA's small and medium-sized members in opposition to the Industrial Base amendments. It was also sent to all of the House and Senate Armed Services conferees on the FY04 Defense Authorization Bill. The letter follows a series of meetings that the suppliers held last month with 38 Senate and House offices to urge a united bipartisan front against the Title VIII amendments. At those meetings, more than 60 suppliers reminded their congressional representatives that the amendments would reverse longstanding Defense Department policies to expand commercial procurement practices and cause taxpayers to bear the cost of developing new weapons. A copy of today's letter is available in our legislative affairs section. P.A. Rel 2003-29 08.29.03 -AIA- Contact: Matt Grimison, AIA |
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