Daniel Inouye: “I believe the measure before us has addressed this problem. The problem in issue is rather painful. On one hand, it is…”

“I believe the measure before us has addressed this problem. The problem in issue is rather painful. On one hand, it is our intention, and the intention of our Department of Defense, to maintain and retain an industrial base. How do we maintain an industrial base if there are too many companies involved in one scope of work, adding to the cost of defense? We have found that by encouraging restructuring, they can bring about a definite reduction in costs--a reduction in costs to the taxpayers, a reduction in costs to the Department. Mr. President, there is no question that when we do achieve cost reduction brought about by restructuring, men and women will find themselves without employment. And so we are faced with this predicament: Do we subsidize a company by paying large sums of money for services and products, knowing that it can be done less expensively, but since we don't want men and women to lose their jobs, we subsidize their company to maintain an overloaded work force? We have decided that it would be in our national interest, in the interest of the Defense Department, and in the interest of the taxpayers that we bring down the cost of Government.”