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.