billion aerial tanker contract to a European competitor, senators from
Washington state and Kansas pressured President Barack Obama on Thursday
to side with the U.S. aerospace giant, which promises to bring
thousands of jobs to the two states if it wins the competition.
“Our
economy and our workers cannot afford for this contract and the jobs it
will create to go overseas,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., adding
that Boeing employees “are hungry for this contract.”
Sen. Pat
Roberts, R-Kan., implored “everybody who’s out there tweeting, chirping
and Facebooking” to contact the White House immediately and stress the
importance of getting the Air Force to award the contract to
Chicago-based Boeing.
“It is in the national interest that we
ought to do this,” Roberts said. “The Air Force ought to pay attention
to that. … Our workers in Kansas and Wichita stand at the ready.”
If
Boeing wins the contract, the company promises, it will create 11,000
jobs in Washington state and 7,500 jobs in Kansas. The company has large
manufacturing facilities in Washington state, Kansas, Missouri and
another plant slated to open this year in South Carolina.
If
Boeing loses the contract, the new jobs will go to Mobile, Ala., where
the parent company of Airbus, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space
Co., promises to build the airplanes.
Business officials and lawmakers from Alabama sound increasingly confident that EADS will get the nod.
“If
this could happen in Mobile, and it could, it would be the best thing
since the French discovered the port here,” Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.,
told an audience of 300 business leaders in Mobile earlier this week.
Washington state and Kansas politicians are engaged in an all-out blitz to get Obama’s attention.
The
governors of the two states, Democrat Chris Gregoire of Washington and
Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas, are heading a group called the U.S.
Tanker Coalition. Earlier this week, they wrote a letter to Obama,
saying that Boeing could build the tankers “and prove the best value for
the American taxpayer.”
The lobbying effort comes as the
decade-long competition over the aerial refueling tankers heads to an
apparent end. Officials said a final decision could come in a matter of
days or weeks.
“We’re now in the home stretch — finally — of the
competition,” Murray said. “And this award could not come at a more
critical time in our efforts to rebuild our economy, grow our work force
and create jobs in all our communities.”
She borrowed a line
from the president’s State of the Union speech, in which he urged
Americans to focus on “winning the future.”
“To win the future,
we’re going to need to win this contract,” Murray said. “It’s a contract
that will build things here, create jobs here and reward innovation
right here at home.”
Roberts said that if the White House was
serious about creating more jobs, “the president should look no further
than the procurement of the Boeing tanker.” He said the contract would
have an annual $388 million economic impact on Kansas.
“Ladies
and gentlemen, this has been too long,” Roberts said. “It’s been a
10-year effort, and these are Eisenhower-era airplanes” that the Air
Force would be replacing. “It’s time to award this contract and put
people to work.”
The tanker issue has generated plenty of heat so far in the new Congress.
Last
month, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan.,
teamed up to sponsor a bill that would require the Pentagon to consider
any unfair advantages for either company gained through subsidies before
awarding the contract.
At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services
Committee in late January, senators from both parties loudly criticized
the Air Force after military officials acknowledged that they’d
accidentally disclosed secret data to Boeing and EADS before the
companies had submitted their final bids.
Military officials
investigated the disclosure and decided that the bidding process could
proceed. Cantwell said she planned to ask the Defense Department
inspector general to investigate the incident.
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