Amid ongoing debate on the annual national defense spending bill in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) highlighted the importance of policies that support domestic manufacturing and penalize manufacturers that ship jobs overseas on Wednesday.
Donnelly, a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, H.R. 5515, that would require the U.S. Department of Defense to evaluate its F-35 supply chain to pinpoint any vulnerabilities with parts manufactured abroad. The amendment follows news that braking mechanisms manufactured at a Honeywell facility in South Bend, Indiana, are scheduled to be outsourced to Turkey later this year.
On the Senate floor, Donnelly said Turkey is in the process of purchasing a missile defense system from Russia, and Turkey has become an example of “crumbling” democracy.
“That’s not the kind of place where we should be manufacturing critical components for one of the most advanced warfighting machines in our arsenal,” Donnelly said. “Particularly when we have trained, experienced, talented, patriotic, devoted American workers in South Bend, Ind., who want to continue doing this work, protecting our men and women, and keeping the nation safe.”
Donnelly also voiced concerns that tenuous U.S. relations abroad could make it impossible to secure braking mechanisms being manufactured in Turkey, jeopardizing the supply chain.
In January 2017, Donnelly also introduced the End Outsourcing Act. The bill would penalize corporations that outsource domestic jobs by considering that when awarding federal contracts and considering tax breaks.
“When it comes to our national defense work, I believe it is critical that our policies encourage companies to invest in American workers and communities at home and penalize those that ship work to foreign countries,” Donnelly said. “…When defense work is shipped from American companies to other countries, it can hurt our national defense, our workers, and our communities.”