[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 28196]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD

  (Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, we need an American air refueling tanker 
built by an American company with American workers. And we need it now 
more than ever. With unemployment at over 10.2, it's unbelievable that 
the Pentagon would consider outsourcing this key national security 
asset to the French. But not only is the Department of Defense 
considering this; they are bending over backwards to ensure that EADS, 
the French company, can compete.
  The Department of Defense is turning a blind eye to the World Trade 
Organization's ruling that found EADS guilty--guilty of receiving 
billions of dollars in illegal subsidies. This distorts the marketplace 
and gives EADS a clearly unfair advantage in the competition. The 
Department of Defense is also waiving five expensive regulations for 
the French company, but not for the American workers. This makes the 
American tanker more expensive and less competitive.
  The Pentagon should develop a fair level playing field for the air 
refueling tanker competition, and this can only happen when these 
illegal subsidies are considered and all regulations are equally 
applied to both competitors.

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