Lawmakers' message to Air Force: 'Our national security is at risk now'

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published March 08, 2008

State lawmakers rushed to the defense of The Boeing Co. on Friday to protest the $40 billion air-tanker contract awarded by the Air Force to Northrup Grumman Corp. and its European partner.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, insisted that "our national security is at risk now" — claiming a foreign country will be supplying the aerial refueling aircraft, even though Northrup plans to do much of the work in the United States.

"I am shocked as a former officer of this country that our Pentagon has done this …" said Rep. Tom Campbell, a Roy Republican and former Green Beret. "They have to be stopped."

Other lawmakers were upset about the loss of jobs, claiming that 44,000 would be lost nationwide and 9,000 in Washington.

"This is not an easy thing to take. This is wrong. We are outsourcing jobs that belong in Washington state and in the U.S.," added Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, whose comments were echoed by Republicans and other Democrats in floor speeches and testimony earlier in the day during an emergency meeting of Kenney's economic and trade committee.

The House voted 92-1 to pass the resolution, dubbed House Joint Memorial 4034. The Senate is scheduled to follow up Monday.

Joint memorials typically have no effect, and they often are described at the Capitol as "letters to Santa Claus." But Kessler said Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Wash., told her he welcomed the resolution as he and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., try to undo the Air Force contract for 179 KC –45A tankers in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Glenn Anderson, the Fall City Republican, cast the lone vote against the measure, saying that he could not look past Boeing's previous contract irregularities.

"The reason Boeing came up short is probably directly related to a procurement scandal in which people went to jail. I think it's inappropriate, no matter how much we support the workers of The Boeing Co., which is a Chicago, Illinois-based multinational firm, to validate unethical business practice behavior," Anderson said.