Defense Industry Urges Congress To Provide Emergency Funds For DoD In Next COVID Response Bill

摘要

The Aerospace Industry Association and executives from 80 defense companies have signed a letter urging congressional leadership to provide the Pentagon with supplemental funding to help the department pay billions of dollars in industry's pandemic-related claims. The letter was sent Tuesday to both House and Senate leadership as Congress readies its next COVID-19 relief package, and calls for lawmakers to appropriate funding for a previous emergency bill provision that authorized reimbursements for unanticipated costs. "As you know, the [CARES Act] did not appropriate funds for those reimbursements. This situation creates a problematic burden on our defense industrial base and a difficult choice for the Department of Defense," the letter's signees wrote. "Absorbing the magnitude of the Department's estimated costs without appropriations would threaten recent improvements to readiness, jeopardize critical defense sector jobs which have helped stabilize communities across the country during the pandemic, and further erode the domestic supply base."