By Emelie Rutherford
Advocates hoping to sway the direction of the industry competition to build the Air Force tanker made the cases in Washington yesterday, while aircraft builders Boeing [BA] and Northrop Grumman [NOC]-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) waited for the Pentagon to release the official solicitation.
That final request for proposals (RFP) could be unveiled as soon as today. Northrop Grumman-EADS has threatened to pull out of the two-way contest if changes aren’t made to the RFP’s draft, which it argued was slanted toward Boeing.
Boeing enjoys significant political support on Capitol Hill, and yesterday supportive governors from beyond the Beltway flexed their political muscles as well.
Govs. Chris Gregoire (D-Wash.) and Mark Parkinson (D-Kan.), whose states would receive economic jolts if Boeing secures the tanker contract, said yesterday that they will be very vocal in the coming months in advocating for Boeing’s bid.
Addressing reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Gregoire and Parkinson argued if Boeing builds the tanker more American workers would benefit.
“In the coming months the public, the Congress, and the administration will be hearing from governors from coast to coast on these issues,” Gregoire said. “They’ll hear from businesses large and small who have come with us, and they will hear about all of us supporting a new tanker. They’ll hear from machinists, they’ll hear from engineers, technicians, that the best place to build that tanker is here in the U.S.”
Northrop Grumman-EADS has said it would assemble its tanker in Alabama.
Gregoire heads a new pro-Boeing-tanker coalition, called the U.S. Tanker 2010, that includes at least nine governors, including Parkinson, Pat Quinn (D-Ill.), Jodi Rell (R- Conn.), Chet Culver (D-Iowa), John Baldacci (D-Maine), Jay Nixon (D-Mo.), Ted Kulongoski (D-Ore.), and Gary Herbert (R-Utah). The state leaders were in the nation’s capital yesterday for a National Governors Association meeting.
Also yesterday, a campaign advocating for the Pentagon to buy tankers from both Northrop Grumman-EADS and Boeing officially was unveiled.
Called Build Them Both, the campaign describes itself as a grassroots movement. It is the first campaign of American Jobs Now, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan coalition which says it works to identify “public and private sector actions that lead to immediate job creation.” American Jobs Now has a 501c4 tax status, which means it is a non-profit organization that can lobby and campaign.
The Build Them Both campaign is trying to convince Congress and Obama that a tanker dual buy is in the best interest of taxpayers and ensures the long-delayed aircraft are built. It says buying tankers from both Boeing and Northrop Grumman-EADS would “quickly create 100,000 good-paying, long lasting American jobs,” or close to twice as many resulting from a contract to one of the competitors.
The campaign provides pre-written letters that supporters can submit electronically to their members of Congress and is gathering a pro-dual-buy petition that it will deliver to Obama.
“While many policies designed to create jobs are difficult and offer no guarantee of success, we believe that when a government action can be taken that will immediately stimulate the creation of new American jobs it should be taken without delay,” the petition to Obama says. “Mr. President, with a single order you have the power to create 100,000 American jobs right now.”
Build Them Both ran its first newspaper advertisement yesterday in Politico and planned to run one today in The Hill, campaign manager Carrie Giddins told Defense Daily. The campaign at this point is funded by unnamed private individual donors who are not part of the defense industry, she said.
“What we are trying to do is get the attention of the companies that will be positively affected by this,” she said, arguing that includes Boeing and Northrop Grumman. The campaign also is seeking support from unions. Giddins said she and Daniel Kohns, the executive director, are not registered lobbyists.
The tanker dual-buy idea looks to have lost some support on Capitol Hill with the loss of late congressman John Murtha, who until his Feb. 8 death chaired the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D).
Murtha supported a tanker split buy, but under pressure from the Pentagon last year backed off putting language in the FY ’10 defense appropriations bill to compel such a purchase. Murtha had kept pushing for a dual buy.
Now Boeing backer Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) is slated to take over the HAC-D chairmanship. The lawmaker from Washington state, where Boeing has a significant presence, has opposed a tanker dual buy.
Also, in another indication of altered support for a tanker split buy, the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee chairmanship is now held by a Washington state lawmaker, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.). Until last month, dual-buy supporter Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) chaired the subcommittee; he left because he is departing Congress to run for governor of Hawaii.