Second to None Hits St. Louis
The Second to None campaign put on its traveling shoes again in October for a presentation before the National Defense Industrial Association’s St. Louis Chapter, in conjunction with the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA) on Monday October 15.
AIA’s Director of Communications Dan Stohr was dispatched to speak with more than 50 members of NDIA and RCGA in an effort to “Stop the Clock” on sequestration. The well-received presentation was followed by a spirited Q&A session on a wide range of related topics.
Foremost on everyone’s mind was the “fog of uncertainty” surrounding sequestration cuts. Small business impacts ran a close second, as most of NDIA’s members in the St. Louis chapter are small businesses supplying a variety of goods and services to prime contractors and first-tier subcontractors. An uncertain business environment combined with the potential for steep cuts to procurement and R&D accounts have left many of these businesses paralyzed. These companies are unable to invest in plants or jobs because of frozen capital, or unable to justify the risk of borrowing funds even when they’re available.
The sequestration crisis is robbing resources and the ability to invest from the very companies the United States need to step up with innovative solutions. America looks to small business for the bulk of its job creation, and impending budget cuts are weighing on an already slow recovery.
In his panel, Stohr described the efforts AIA has put forth to combat sequestration cuts, explaining that wherever AIA goes, the message is the same: Our elected representatives need to find an alternative to our deficit and debt problems that doesn’t put millions out of work, that won’t overturn our fragile recovery and that won’t strike at the very core of our national security.
He urged the audience to tell their elected officials to put politics aside and find a practical, bipartisan, common sense solution to the sequestration mess, pointing out that sequestration will take hard work on the part of everyone to overturn.
The participants left with a renewed sense of purpose and determination to insist that our elected leaders find a solution to sequestration. To join AIA’s growing coalition to overturn these draconian budget cuts, please visit www.secondtonone.org and use the tools available to write to your representatives and senators in Congress urging them to find an alternative.
The full text of Stohr’s remarks and his presentation can be found here: http://www.aia-aerospace.org/newsroom/speeches_testimony/
AIA source: dan.stohr[at]aia-aerospace.org
