Takes Flight

25 Apr 2008
Congressman Bonner's Letter to Fellow Representatives
Alabama Congressman Joe Bonner recently distributed a "Dear Colleague" letter to his fellow members of the House of Representatives concerning America's New Tanker and his concerns over efforts to overturn the Air Force decision to award the tanker contract to Northrop Grumman. You can view the letter at this link:

http://www.americasnewtanker.com/docs/BonnerMemberLtr_0408.pdf

The full text of Congressman Bonner's letter is as follows:

Dear_______:

As you know, there has been a lot of conversation on the Hill — some of it rather heated — since the Air Fore's decision on February 29 that Northrop Grumman would build America's new refueling tanker, the KC-45.

The level of intensity following this announcement is, in many ways, understandable. As Americans, we are highly competitive by nature, and as you well know, you never enter a competition with any goal short of winning.

That said, imagine, for a moment, that your district has just been selected to be the site of two new manufacturing facilities that will employ at least 1,500 people and support 5,000 jobs throughout the tri-state area. Imagine, too, that an old Air Force base in your district, shuttered in 1964, will once again come alive with the sound of rivet guns in the cause of our national defense. Keep in mind that in addition to KC-45 production, your district has also been tapped to produce another large commercial aircraft (the freighter version of the Airbus A-330-200), employing at least 20,000 workers nationwide. Finally, think of how immensely proud your hometown would be to become only the third city in the world capable of producing large, wide-bodied commercial aircraft.

______, with the Air Force's decision, all of these dreams are set to become a reality in my district and in my hometown of Mobile, Alabama. Regardless of any previous position you might have had about the tanker competition, I trust you can appreciate how truly excited and thrilled the people who live along America's Gulf Coast, in the states of Mississippi, Florida and Alabama, are over their future.

On the other hand, what if your district had been at the center of all-things-tanker for the past 50 years? The so-called "experts" were saying — literally up until the announcement was made - that your team was the prohibitive favorite in the competition - the contract was actually "yours to lose." Then, the unimaginable occurred — your team lost. The shock, angst and outrage are understandable — I think we can all appreciate how our friends, primarily from the states of Washington and Kansas, reacted.

The desire to appeal the decision was natural, and Boeing exercised its option to lodge a formal protest which, as you know, is pending before the General Accountability Office (GAO). During this protest period, the Air Force suspended all work on the tanker contract.

As you also know, the GAO serves as the impartial arbiter of all protests of Department of Defense (DoD) contract awards. This is the well-respected process that ensures integrity and fairness in DoD's competitive source selections. The GAO is expected to issue its ruling by June 19, 2008.

Unfortunately, in recent days, a few of our colleagues have said that the GAO ruling doesn't really matter. One Member said, "We hope the GAO decision comes out, but regardless of that, Congress has a responsibility to correct one of the worst decisions in modern history."

Another colleague appears to be intent on trying to disqualify the winning bidder and on ordering the Pentagon to conduct a new competition, effectively allowing only one company (Boeing) to compete. As you can see, this would be nothing short of writing a sole-source contract to one company, something many of us have criticized over the years.

Clearly, if there is no competition, the American taxpayer and the American warfighter both stand to be the biggest losers. Regretfully, there are those who are willing to throw out the longstanding, credible system of defense procurement, simply to reverse the outcome of a single contract.

Moreover, these colleagues - even with the best of intentions for their own district's interests - appear to be willing to destabilize the defense trade between the United States and Europe, where Europe historically buys $4 to $6 in defense material from the United States for every $1 we spend for defense goods from Europe. Sadly, these Members seem willing to enflame nationalistic sentiments in Europe which will likely spill over into the commercial aircraft market and many other areas of trade as well.

Clearly, senior DoD officials are troubled. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Monday:

"All I can say is that I think it would be a real shame if the tankers were to get delayed.... "...Based on everything I've seen this was a fair process but we'll wait and see what the GAO report says.... "...But, I think that some things unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix at least on Capitol Hill and that's a concern."

Undersecretary of Defense of Acquisition John Young on Friday warned of "slippery slopes and dangerous precedents." He cautioned:

"It is going to be dangerous to set aside valid source selections on a political basis. Do we have the California delegation kill a program because the Georgia delegation won? I don't know where this stops. If I am going to demand that certain companies or proposals must win regardless of what they cost, I am going to disadvantage the taxpayer and the warfighter. I am going to deliver (a weapon with) less capability for more cost."

And Dr. Jacques Gansler, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition in the Clinton Administration, said about the situation:

"[This] is a test for the Untied States in the sense that we cannot go back 100 years or more to allow our Congress to be making procurement decisions for the government. We got rid of that process and it has to be not returned. This is a real test of the U.S. Congress and of our procurement process, I think, for the future."

We all know our warfighters need a new tanker to replace the 48 year-old fleet they now fly. A team of 150 certified acquisition professionals and aviators spent 14 months poring over 36,000 pages of technical detail and determined the Northrop Grumman aircraft best met its needs. The GAO is currently validating the integrity and fairness of the decision process. We should avoid the slippery slope of which Secretary Young warns and let the longstanding process yield the final word.

Finally, in an effort to set the record straight about some of the false claims being made about the Northrop Grumman tanker, I have enclosed a document dispelling tanker myths. I hope you will have a chance to review it, and, naturally, I welcome any thoughts or questions you might have as we move forward in this process.

Thanks, again, for taking a few minutes to read this letter. With best regards, I am

Sincerely,

Joe Bonner Member of Congress

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