Patty Murray: “over the course of this past week, I have come to the Senate floor every single day to sound an alarm about the…”

“over the course of this past week, I have come to the Senate floor every single day to sound an alarm about the misguided and potentially dangerous decision to outsource a major piece of our aerospace industry to Europe. I have talked about the dismay Boeing workers felt in my home State of Washington when they learned the Pentagon had decided to award a contract to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers not to Boeing but to a French company, Airbus. I have talked about my shock that we would award Airbus this contract, given the EU's lengthy history of subsidizing these planes in order to create European, not American, jobs. I have talked about the fact that Airbus is being less than open about how many U.S. jobs it will really create in this country. All of these are reasons to be deeply troubled about this decision. But today I want to address yet another concern; that is, the ability to control our national security once we have effectively turned over control of our military capability and technology to a foreign government. This is an issue we all need to take a good hard look at. America's global military strength is built on our ability to use military might anywhere in the world, at a moment's notice. Our aerial refueling tankers are the critical link that allows the U.S. Air Force to stretch across the globe.”