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Senators' votes allowed opportunities for Kansas to fly by when in 2003, in a 50-48 vote, Kan. Sen.
Pat Roberts voted to authorize the Department of Defense to seek bids on military contracts from companies based in foreign countries.
If Roberts and fellow Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback had voted against the amendment, it would have failed and Boeing would have
retained the contract to manufacture the aircraft.Roberts reacted with “disappointment” and “shock” following Boeing’s lost bid to supply 179 tanker aircraft to the U.S. Air
Force in February. Roberts said the lost contract would have “meant up to 3,800 Kansas jobs and $145 million a year economic impact.” Roberts has said the decision “will be at the cost
of American jobs and American dollars, if not our national security.”
Boeing has supplied Air Force tankers to the Defense Department for 50 years and was favored to win the contract, but an
amendment approved by Roberts and Brownback in 2003 allowed the department to waive domestic production requirements for such contracts and instead hire foreign manufactures to build U.S. military
projects. Instead of being awarded to the Chicago-based Boeing Co., which operates facilities in Kansas, the $35 billion contract will go to Northrop Grumman/European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.
with the planes being almost entirely manufactured in Europe by a French company.
In 2003, Sen. John McCain introduced Senate Amendment 783 to amend Senate Bill 1050, the defense appropriations bill being
debated at that time. The proposed amendment would allow the Department of Defense to waive any domestic production requirements for military construction contracts and allow the department to acquire
contracts with companies in foreign countries. That amendment passed 50-48 on May 21, 2003 with the full support of Roberts. Roberts later forcefully spoke on the floor of the Senate in support of the
bill and urged his fellow senators to support the legislation, which passed the following day.
Lee Jones, Sen. Pat Roberts’ Democratic opponent for the U.S. Senate race in Kansas has commented, “Roberts may be
reacting with shock and disappointment now but he was a key vote in a close decision that allowed the Dept. of Defense to give the contract to a foreign company.” In fact, in October 2007, Roberts
gave a speech praising the department’s process of considering foreign contracts saying,
“I also hope that the Air Force will continue with its winner-take-all strategy. … (T)o do otherwise would be an
incredible disservice to our airmen and women. … In closing, I must commend the Air Force for their efforts in conducting an open and fair competition. To date, I have been nothing but impressed
with their obvious desire to provide the best aircraft to the American people.”
Jones, a Democrat, pointed to the failure by saying, “Kansans have their own Republican Senators to thank for the loss of
jobs and economic opportunity the Boeing contract would have awarded. Without the votes of Roberts and Brownback, the amendment would have failed and Boeing’s contract would have stayed with
Boeing. Roberts voted in 2003 without the interests of Kansas in mind and the people of Kansas will suffer the consequences of his vote today and into the future.”
Jones, a railroad engineer also stated, “Roberts was asleep at the switch and has derailed the whole tanker project for
Boeing and its workers. Sen. Roberts not only wrongly voted for the McCain amendment, but to add insult to injury, went to the floor of the U.S. Senate and urged his fellow senators to vote for the
amendment. He now knows that he is in trouble and is trying to cover his tracks.” Jones clarified his own stance by stating, “I never would have voted for the amendment in the first place. It
was wrong for Kansas and it was wrong for our national defense
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