Defense Level Playing Field Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. I want to congratulate Mr. Inslee and his leadership on this measure.

Madam Speaker, in a few short weeks, according to the latest news from the Pentagon, this tanker contract is expected to be awarded. Again, I don't think anyone can understate the impact over the decades that final outcome will have on the U.S. economy, particularly our aerospace industrial base.

As has been mentioned by prior speakers, the first tranche of contracts will be about $35 billion. In total, it is estimated to be about $100 billion just in manufacturing. Given the age of the existing tanker planes, the maintenance and repair work is probably another $100 billion if you look over the lifetime of this plane's existence.

So, for the American industrial base, the decision which the Pentagon is on the verge of announcing will have an impact decades hence, and it is extremely important for the American taxpayers that they be given total assurance that this decision is going to be made fairly and with the best interests of our country at heart.

If you would just step back and look at other weapons procurement programs, whether it is nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, the Joint Strike Fighter, the notion that those contracts, that those weapons platforms would be awarded to foreign manufacturers that receive subsidies from their governments would be just laughable; but for some reason, in this instance, the Department of Defense has just turned a blind eye to the obvious unfairness which this bid process has produced.

So, again, what this very simple measure seeks to do is to put a big red warning flag up to the Pentagon to say, when this decision is made, for the sake of the American taxpayers, subsidies that have been found to be illegal will be taken into account in the final decision.

I urge strong support for this measure.

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