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Deficit Commission Panel Co-Chair Recommendations Could Undercut Defense

AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey statement on the recommendation of the Deficit Commission

November 10, 2010

Reports that the Deficit Commission Panel may recommend arbitrarily reducing defense funding for modernization — both procurement and R&D — raise grave concerns. The highest constitutional responsibility of the federal government is to protect the American people from foreign aggression. While we agree that the Pentagon needs to reform its systems in order to achieve greater efficiencies, we cannot abandon the security of future generations. History provides all too many examples where cuts to defense spending were followed by the rise of a threat that we were unprepared to meet. The co-chair recommendations in the defense arena, if implemented, would exacerbate the coming shortage of engineers and undercut the capability of the nation’s defense industrial base to design, build and support complex cutting-edge defense systems.