Rep Jay Inslee - Legislative Alert

From the desk of Representative Jay Inslee:


Congressman Jay Inslee represents the 1st Congressional District which includes Shoreline.
He made a floor speech in the House of Representatives about concerns on illegal subsidies in the bidding controversy for the air fueling tanker issue. Jay Inslee is a Democrat. http://www.house.gov/inslee/index.shtml

I want to alert you to a vote that took place just last night and may have a huge impact on Washingtonians.

Last night, the House of Representatives passed the Fair Defense Competition amendment by a vote of 410-8.  I crafted the amendment with a bipartisan group of House members, including my Washington colleague Rep. Rick Larsen.

In simple terms, this amendment requires the Department of Defense to consider illegal subsides received by a bidder in any proposal to build the next generation of air refueling tanker for the United States Air Force. 

This is what I said on the House floor just last night:  This is what I said on the House floor just last night:

"All Americans believe in a strong national defense and all Americans believe in a fairlevel playing field in economic competition.  In the competition for the procurement contract for the Air Force's next generation air-refueling tanker, to preserve national defense infrastructure, to preserve fairness, we need to assure that unfair competitive advantages, illegal subsidies, are in fact taken into consideration during this bidding process.  We have prepared an amendment to do that. 

This legislation will insist our bidding process be conducted fairly.  That when any bidder, domestic or foreign, has an unfair competitive advantage that it is taken into consideration. 

At stake are 50,000 American jobs and nothing in international law compels us to provide a stimulus program for France.  We know American aerospace workers can compete if they have a level playing field."