[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3102-3103]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TANKER SHOULD BE BUILT BY AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, we should all be deeply troubled by last 
week's decision by the Air Force to choose a French-built air refueling 
tanker.
  The European Aeronautics Defense and Space Team, known as EADS, found 
a front American company, Northrup Grumman, to bid their foreign-built 
tanker. When the Air Force chose this French tanker, they chose to 
outsource our national security and to send American jobs overseas.
  This contract award has rightly created outrage all across the United 
States. It is just another example, and perhaps the best example, of 
how our own government is putting the United States at an economic 
disadvantage. At a time of economic insecurity, it is mind-boggling 
that the Department of Defense would send at a minimum 19,000 jobs 
overseas.
  We should have an American tanker built by an American company with 
American workers. Instead, the Air Force awarded this contract for a 
French tanker built by Europeans. How could this happen? Well, first, 
the Department of Defense has created an unlevel playing field that 
favored foreign companies. We should have known something was wrong 
when the replacement for Marine I, the President's helicopter, was 
awarded to a European company. If that wasn't enough, we should have 
known it was fixed in favor of foreign companies when the Army awarded 
a French company the contract to build the light utility helicopter. 
The light utility helicopter is for domestic use here in America, 
awarded to a French company. And, now, the third big contract in a row 
goes to a French company to build a French tanker.
  First it was the Presidential helicopter went to a foreign company, 
then it was the light utility helicopter went to a foreign company, and 
now our air-refueling tanker. We need an American tanker built by 
American companies with American workers. The Air Force rules do not 
consider the loss of American jobs. The Air Force rules do not consider 
illegal subsidies given to foreign companies. The Air Force rules do 
not consider that NATO allies, the French company, do not have to 
comply with the same American regulations as American contractors do. 
The Air Force does not consider the loss of Federal revenue, because 
French workers do not pay American taxes. But the Air Force will have 
to consider the outrage of outsourcing our national defense.
  The Air Force will have to consider that we need an American tanker 
built by American companies with American

[[Page 3103]]

workers. To help the Department of Defense and the Air Force understand 
this nationwide outrage, I have set up an online petition that all 
Americans can participate in.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to go to the Web site, 
www.House.gov/Tiahrt, and sign a petition expressing their own outrage 
at outsourcing our national security and outsourcing American jobs.
  We need an American tanker built by an American company with American 
workers.

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