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The White House is negotiating with House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., to reach a compromise on the lawmaker's controversial plan to further restrict the amount of foreign parts and components used in U.S. military weaponry.

"There are negotiations going on with the White House, and we're optimistic they will work something out," a committee spokesman told CongressDaily Thursday.

Hunter's "Buy American" legislation, which is included in the House version of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, would require major defense acquisitions to use only U.S.-made machine tools. It would also direct the Defense Department to procure weapons and equipment containing at least 65 percent U.S. content, an increase over the current 50 percent mandate.

The Senate did not include the same Buy American legislation in its defense bill, a version strongly endorsed by U.S. and European defense firms, who fear the restrictive House bill would jeopardize current weapons programs.

With the White House now involved, observers said they expect Hunter to meet with Senate lawmakers for formal conference talks later this month.

The committee spokesman said that while Hunter remains steadfast in his convictions, the chairman is amenable to compromise. "He's not hanging his head and thinking we're not going to produce a good product," the spokesman said.

The Bush administration's strongest opponent of the language is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who penned a July 8 letter to Hunter that said he would urge the president to veto the bill if the chairman's legislation is not pared back. Rumsfeld argues that the language would harm trans-Atlantic defense trade ties and impair U.S. interoperability with allies on the battlefield.

But Hunter is concerned that current Buy American provisions leave U.S. military readiness vulnerable to the whims of foreign manufacturers. He also does not want foreign governments that failed to support the U.S.-led war in Iraq to benefit from the Pentagon's hefty procurement coffers.

In addition, Hunter's legislation addresses shortcomings in the Pentagon's own statistics and data on the foreign content incorporated into its weapons systems. It also seeks a mechanism to conduct a more thorough study of the health of the U.S. defense industrial base. Currently, the department does conduct such a study on an annual basis, but these reports focus on major defense contractors and fail to include third- and fourth-tier suppliers that produce parts and components critical to military readiness.

One Senate aide involved in staff-level discussions said a potential compromise would be to initiate a study along the lines of Hunter's proposal before implementing the Buy American legislation. But opponents of the legislation are wary of any such study and the impact it could have on defense contractors.

"If it's a review of how much we sell to Europe and how much they sell to us, fine," one industry consultant said in an interview Thursday. "But if they want every contracting officer to report every part, country of origin, price, the reason they bought it, and so on, then they would avoid buying anything with foreign content just to avoid having to do the report."

The Armed Services panel spokesman said the Buy American legislation is one of "a good 20 issues out there" stalling the defense authorization conference, although he added that about 80 percent of those issues have been resolved.

In addition to Buy American, the "big issues" are still the concurrent receipt of veterans' disability and retirement pay, military base realignment and closure, and the Pentagon's Tricare healthcare system, the spokesman said.

COMMENTS

• Causes for the Fall of the Roman Empire (is history repeating itself?) 1. As productivity declined, the Roman empire became more dependent on foreign products. 2. A break-down in the labor force occurred as the traditional work ethic declined. 3. The infrastructure of the cities declined and began a steady decay. 4. A balance of trade deficit began to occur. 5. The cost of government, including the military and welfare, became too burdensome. 6. Class economic warfare broke out between the rich and poor. Parts of the empire were not taxed while others were overtaxed. 7. The government became increasingly run by the rich and the military. 8. Citizens lost interest in government as it became distant from them. 9. The military became aloyal to the country—it became a job, not a mission. 10. Patriotism declined as people lost their allegiance to the state. GovExec.com reader Posted September 16, 2003 9:37 AM
• While, addressing this subject Congress whould also take up Fly America. With all the mergers, association/cooperation/partnership agreements the airline industry is saying that flying me is just like flying my partner, yet we (U.S. Government) are saying you can only support a U.S. carrier. To the general public the U.S. carrier is saying fly who you want (because we probably have an association). Bottom line: If the U.S. carrier has an association/partnership with other carriers, then the traveling government employee should be able to book freely with any one of the group. Stan Harris Posted September 15, 2003 7:10 AM
• I think Mr Hunter is absolutely correct and should not compromise the safety and welfare of the USA for political gain as stated by Rummy and the White House. If we buy from our allies (Iraq who we armed, Iran at one time, Germany today but not in the 1940's, Italy today but not in the 1940's, Russia today but not for the past fifty years, and on and on). I think it is wonderful that Rummy knows who our allies are but I bet he doesn't really know who the USA will be fighting in ten years! If we are not self-sufficient in this area them we might as well outsource the entire military operation - hire Chinese soldiers (they are cheaper and there are far more that the USA can enlist. GovExec.com reader Posted September 15, 2003 7:30 AM