Ann Wagner: “I thank the chairman for his courtesy in yielding to me. I rise in support of my bipartisan amendment, which supports…”

“I thank the chairman for his courtesy in yielding to me. I rise in support of my bipartisan amendment, which supports critical relief for certain defense contractors who faced crippling cost overruns due to inflation. As so many of us have heard from our families across our districts, the administration's harmful inflation is cutting deep into constituents' pocketbooks. Many American businesses working on projects, which are critical to U.S. national security, are facing the same staggering price increases. Because of the importance of their work to our safety and security, local employers, like those working on the National Geospatial Agency project in St. Louis, were forced to pay steep, unanticipated price increases in order to meet the projects' original deadlines. I am proud of the St. Louis area companies and workers who made tough sacrifices while doing their part to safeguard our national security and keep construction of the new NGA West headquarters on track. These economic disruptions and runaway price increases threaten to trigger a crisis that could significantly weaken our defense industrial base. Twice, on a bipartisan basis, Congress has narrowly authorized the Department of Defense to provide extraordinary relief for these companies in order to preserve a healthy and competitive defense industrial base, but that funding has never been appropriated.…”