Dick Durbin: “2 and a half years ago, I chaired a hearing of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in which the chief executives of…”

“2 and a half years ago, I chaired a hearing of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in which the chief executives of the two top rocket makers, the United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, testified on the need for competition in launching government satellites. Not long after that hearing, Russia began its aggression against Ukraine. These two issues--the threat against Ukraine and the launch of U.S. satellites--intersected because one company is reliant on rocket engines made in Russia. Defense appropriations bills since then have included nearly half a billion dollars to build a new, American-made engine to end this reliance on Russian engines as quickly as a replacement can be built and tested. Defense authorization bills have taken a different approach, by putting strict limits on the number of Russian engines that can be purchased before the new, American-made rocket will be ready. Our top national security leaders, including the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Secretary of the Air Force, have warned that laws that halt access to Russian engines will endanger our ability to launch important defense and intelligence satellites. To cut-off access to Russian engines would force the Defense Department to buy rockets that are not cost-competitive with SpaceX because SpaceX's rockets cannot launch our largest satellites.…”