Howard Berman: “I rise in strong support of the en bloc amendment to the Defense authorization bill. I am especially pleased that my…”

“I rise in strong support of the en bloc amendment to the Defense authorization bill. I am especially pleased that my amendment to make workers impacted by reduced arms sales abroad eligible for defense conversion programs was included. Defense workers who are dislocated because of the Government's decision not to allow the sale of certain weapons abroad, should have the same rights as those workers who are dislocated because of U.S. Government's decision to reduce its own purchases of a particular weapon system. Creating this parity not only brings equity to workers dislocated by U.S. policy, it sends a strong message regarding conventional arms restraint. Each step taken to alleviate the negative economic consequences of reduced arms exports helps neutralize the economic hardship arguments used by those who do not believe in arms restraint. This amendment will help policy makers focus on proliferation and security issues which must be paramount when considering whether to approve arms sales. Arms are different than other exports because making the wrong sale can have truly dire consequences.”