[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 680 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 680

To require that the aircraft used as Air Force One by the President be 
   an aircraft that is made in America by an American-owned company.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 26, 2009

 Mr. Poe of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                    the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require that the aircraft used as Air Force One by the President be 
   an aircraft that is made in America by an American-owned company.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Air Force One Built in America 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Presidential jets, known as Air Force One when the 
        President is on board, have stood as a symbol of national pride 
        and have showcased America's manufacturing ingenuity 
        domestically and around the world since the early 1960s.
            (2) America's aerospace industry leader, Boeing, has nearly 
        100 years of experience designing aircraft, and if asked to 
        build an aircraft equivalent to any existing foreign aircraft, 
        it would meet that challenge.
            (3) American taxpayers should not have their tax dollars 
        shipped to a foreign company to build an aircraft that will be 
        used by their President.
            (4) Outsourcing the production of a presidential aircraft 
        that will contain important command and control military 
        capabilities to a foreign company constitutes a national 
        security risk.
            (5) EADS, the parent company of Airbus, which is currently 
        the only other company capable of building an aircraft as 
        sophisticated as Air Force One, has a demonstrably poor track 
        record against United States security interests, including 
        efforts to sell military helicopters to Iran in 2005 and 
        efforts to sell American-made military aircraft and technology 
        in 2006 to Venezuela without the permission of the United 
        States, which is in violation of United States law. A company 
        with this kind of history should not be building the Nation's 
        most important military command and control aircraft.
            (6) Decisions to outsource production almost never take 
        into account the loss of jobs and the adverse economic impact 
        it has on communities throughout America. In a time when the 
        economy is in recession, the Nation cannot afford to lose more 
        manufacturing jobs.
            (7) EADS is supported largely by European subsidies 
        designed to put American competitors that do not rely on 
        similar revenue sources at a disadvantage in an effort to 
        command market share. The United States currently has a World 
        Trade Organization case pending against Airbus as a result of 
        these actions.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT THAT AN AIRCRAFT USED AS AIR FORCE ONE BE MADE IN 
              AMERICA BY AN AMERICAN-OWNED COMPANY.

    The Secretary of Defense may enter into a contract for the 
procurement of an aircraft for use as Air Force One by the President 
only if that aircraft is manufactured in the United States by an 
American-owned company.

SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF AMERICAN-OWNED COMPANY.

    In this Act, the term ``American-owned company'' means a company--
            (1) the chief executive officer of which is a citizen of 
        the United States;
            (2) at least two-thirds of the board of directors and other 
        managing officers of which are citizens of the United States; 
        and
            (3) that is under the actual control of citizens of the 
        United States.
                                 <all>