OLYMPIA – State legislators are storming mad Boeing lost the $35 billion air tanker contract to a group led by its European rival.
The House of Representatives on Friday overwhelmingly passed a measure urging Congress to block the Air Force from buying any aircraft until an inquiry is conducted into how the military department reached its decision.
It is expected to be approved by the state Senate on Monday, then sent to the state’s congressional delegation.
This is not about Boeing or jobs but about fairness, Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, said prior to the vote on House Joint Memorial 4034.
“The process that was followed in this case was seriously flawed and the real victim was our national security,” he said.
The Air Force announced last week it will buy up to 179 tankers from a venture led by Northrop Grumman and featuring Airbus jets built by the France-based European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.
In a morning hearing and the late afternoon floor discussion, lawmakers said they are greatly concerned about the risk to national security of having a foreign company design and construct the U.S. military equipment.
“Do you really want somebody else building our planes?” House Minority Leader Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, asked rhetorically in the hearing.
Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, said “for us to outsource our defense and our defense procurement is not in the best interests of our nation.”
Other legislators called the decision “ill-advised” and made the U.S. vulnerable in times of crises.
Rep. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, whose district includes Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, picked her words carefully.
She said of the Air Force she did not want to “second-guess or impugn their motives” but “another choice would have been a better choice.”
The Boeing Co. is that choice, lawmakers said.
House Majority Leader Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, the prime sponsor of the bill, said the makers of Airbus have not built any military aircraft.
“It is a paper airplane,” she said.
Several legislators said losing the contract could mean a loss of thousands of jobs in Washington, Kansas and other states.
The two-page measure praises Boeing’s history of building military aircraft and cites the economic damage from the loss of aerospace-related jobs.
It ignores a bit of uncomfortable history for Boeing.
There is no mention of Boeing losing a prior air tanker contract due to a tainted bid process. Boeing’s chief executive and chief financial officer resigned and a Pentagon weapons buyer went to prison as a result of the scandal.
Friday’s vote was 93-1 with Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, the lone dissenter.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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