Patty Murray: “I asked Mr. Crosby to again justify the claims regarding the EADS and Airbus contributions to this country on jobs…”

“I asked Mr. Crosby to again justify the claims regarding the EADS and Airbus contributions to this country on jobs, suppliers and economic contributions. For more than a year, his company has refused to answer my questions and the requests from the Department of Commerce. I asked Mr. Crosby to make public the EADS 2002 tanker proposal submitted to the Air Force. We know the Air Force said the proposal was high risk, more expensive than Boeing, and could limit U.S. force projection worldwide. For 2 years, EADS and Airbus have been able to access Boeing proprietary information about its technology and pricing, that came available during the tanker program review. Now, after spending $90 million to develop a tanker it previously did not have, Airbus wants to reopen the tanker contract after it has already seen all of Boeing's cards. Airbus has learned an awful lot about Boeing and tankers and it has used that new technology to best Boeing in a recent tanker competition for Australia. Mr. Crosby will not talk about his 2002 proposal.”