Air tanker deal uniting partisans

State lawmakers are getting fired up on behalf of Boeing.

They want Congress to halt the buying of new refueling air tankers using aircraft built by Boeing’s chief rival.

They want a congressional inquiry into the U.S. Air Force decision to award the $35 billion dollar contract to a team led by Northrop Grumman and featuring Airbus jets built by the France-based European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.

They want the Air Force to “reconsider” awarding the contract to Boeing based on reasons of national and economic security.

Details of their demands are laid out in

HJM 4034 rushed into print this morning in the House of Representatives and a nearly identical one in the Senate. Nearly 110 of the Legislature’s 147 members signed on to one of the two measures by this afternoon.

There’s no pulling of punches or lack of hyperbole in the verbiage.

HJM 4034 says Boeing has a “long and storied history of building the world’s greatest commercial and military aircraft” while Airbus has “no experience” building tankers.

And they argue for the U.S. to invest in the American airplane giant rather than rely on workers and an industry in a “foreign government that may or may not agree with our mission in the world and could undermine it by withholding needed supplies and machinery.”

Authors of the resolution also rewrite history of what happened when the Air Force did award Boeing an air tanker contract a few years ago.

It reads:

Efforts to halt the procurement of Boeing-made planes for the United States Air Force would prove successful and open up the contract to further bidding from foreign competitors.

This ignores the fact that the first deal fell apart due to scandal over Boeing’s hand in tainting the bid process. Boeing’s chief executive and chief financial officer resigned and a Pentagon weapons buyer went to prison as a result.

Friday morning, House Joint Memorial 4034 will be the subject of a public hearing carried live on TVW.