[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1381-E1382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       DEFENSE INDUSTRY INITIATIVE ON BUSINESS ETHICS AND CONDUCT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LAMAR S. SMITH

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 9, 1997

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the 
Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct for its 11 
years of active effort in creating high standards of business ethics, 
business conduct, and compliance in the defense industry. I know that 
many Members of the House are not familiar with this unique effort, 
known as the DII.
  The DII was created in 1986 as an outgrowth of the work of the 
President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, known as the 
Packard Commission. At that time, a number of leading defense 
contractors drafted a set of DII principles. These principles obligated 
signatory companies to have written codes of conduct, to distribute the 
codes to all of their employees, to have ethics training programs which 
made certain that employees understood the codes, to have a hotline or 
ombudsman system, to have systems to make voluntary disclosures of 
violations of law or regulation to the Government, to attend annual 
best practices forums, and to participate in a public accountability 
process.
  The group of signatory companies has grown over these 11 years to 48 
companies, including virtually all of the largest defense contractors. 
Frankly, I would think that all of our 100 largest defense contractors, 
at least, should be willing to sign up publicly to the Defense Industry 
Initiative Principles. And I call upon those companies that are among 
this group which, for whatever reason, are not presently signatories to 
sign this statement in order to pledge themselves to the Defense 
Department and to the public as being committed to these ideals.
  Recently, the DII conducted its 12th Best Practices Forum. This 
session was held on

[[Page E1382]]

June 5 and 6 in Washington, DC, and included some 160 representatives 
of the signatory companies and 40 senior Government officials. The 
program was a state-of-the-art exploration of best practices in 
corporate ethics and compliance programs.
  It is my understanding that the Defense Industry Initiative is the 
only industry ethics initiative of its type. We have certainly seen any 
number of other industries which have had sufficient ethical problems 
that they should consider something equivalent. But it gives me a great 
source of comfort to know that the industry which is charged with 
supplying the defense articles that support our national security has 
set a leadership example in this area.
  I would close by saying that all the evidence available to me 
suggests that the participation of these 48 companies has had a very 
positive impact on their levels of compliance, as well as in the tone 
of the relationship with the Government. I am certain that we all 
remember back to the events that gave rise to the creation of the 
Packard Commission--things such as high price spare parts or improper 
labor charging. I understand the Government audits show that among 
these DII signatory companies the level of such problems has dropped 
dramatically. Moreover, I believe that this effort has forged a true 
partnership in the best sense of the word between Government officials 
responsible for procurement and those in industry who design, develop, 
and manufacture the items necessary for our national defense.
  In order to fully recognize the contribution that has been made and 
the excellent work that has been done, I would like to place into the 
Congressional Record a list of those companies which are signatories to 
the DII. All of these defense contractors are to be congratulated for 
the leadership they have shown and the accomplishments to date. I am 
certain that we can count on them to continue this fine work in the 
future. And I hope that we can count on other defense contractors to 
become part of this important effort.

                      DEFENSE INDUSTRY INITIATIVE


                          Signatory Companies

     Allfast Fastening Systems, Inc.
     Alliant Techsystems Inc.
     Allied-Signal Inc.
     AT&T
     BDM International, Inc.
     The Boeing Company
     Calspan SRL Corporation
     CFM International, Inc.
     The CNA Corporation
     Computer Sciences Corporation
     Day, Zimmerman & Hawthorne Corporation
     Day & Zimmermann, Inc.
     DynCorp
     ESCO Electronics Company
     FMC Corporation
     Frequency Electronics, Inc.
     GDE Systems, Inc.
     General Dynamics Corporation
     General Electric Company
     Harris Corporation
     Hewlett-Packard Company
     Honeywell Inc.
     Hughes Electronics Corporation
     IBM Corporation
     ITT Industries, Inc.
     Lockheed Martin Corporation
     McDonnell Douglas Corporation
     Northrop Grumman Corporation
     Olin Corporation
     Parker Hannifin Corporation
     Primex Technologies, Inc.
     Raytheon Company
     Rockwell International Corporation
     Rohr, Inc.
     Science Applications International Corporation
     Stewart & Stevenson
     Sundstrand Corporation
     Technical Products Group (TPG) Inc./Marion Composites 
         Division
     Teledyne, Inc.
     Texas Instruments Incorporated
     Textron, Inc.
     Thiokol Corporation
     Trident Data Systems
     TRW Inc.
     UNISYS Corporation
     United Technologies Corporation
     Westinghouse Electric Corporation
     Williams International Corporation

     

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