Tony Thurmond: “I support the adoption of the amendment offered by the able Senator from Maine. The Department of Defense proposed this…”

“I support the adoption of the amendment offered by the able Senator from Maine. The Department of Defense proposed this amendment allowing the President to waive recoupment charges on foreign military sales. This measure to repeal the recoupment provision is strongly supported by this administration, which feels that recoupment is an impediment to foreign military sales. Eliminating recoupment was also supported by President Bush's administration. So this is not a partisan issue. Because of its support by the executive branches under both Republicans and Democrats and because of the support on both sides of the aisle in Congress, this matter needs to be addressed. Some will no doubt contend that eliminating recoupment charges will encourage an arms race. Those against repealing recoupment argue that we are going to become an arms merchant, and that we are going to contribute to the escalation of arms sales all over the world if this recoupment provision is repealed. There is no basis for such claims. In fact, the decision as to whether or not to buy a particular weapons system is made primarily by countries and their particular defense needs. Elimination of recoupment is not an incentive to additional arms sales. However, its elimination will have the result of making the United States much more competitive in terms of being able to compete with those nations which are now both our allies in the world and also now our industrial competitors.”