A Senate hearing highlighted support for right-to-repair in defense contracts, citing benefits like faster repairs, greater flexibility, and reduced contractor dependence.
At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink said he agrees with US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and supports making right to repair a strategic priority for the Air Force. He also agreed on the need to update the branch’s policies to include right-to-repair in contracts service-wide and prevent defense contractors from “price-gouging” the military.
As Senator Warren explained, the Air Force’s budget request last year was about $220 billion, with billions going toward developing weapons systems. However, defense contractors’ restrictions prevent servicemembers from repairing Air Force-owned equipment, forcing the service to face delays or pay additional costs when they go back to the contractor for repairs.
This month, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll announced that the Army will ensure right-to-repair provisions are included in future Army contracts and will identify and propose contract modifications to current contracts that would benefit from right-to-repair protections.
Senator Warren argued that the Air Force should adopt a service-wide right-to-repair policy like the Army’s Transformation Initiative so airmen can also be able to repair their own equipment. Secretary Meink expressed support for adopting a service-wide right-to-repair policy and said he has already begun discussions with his team on the issue.
“I think it’s not only from a cost perspective, Senator, I think from a readiness perspective, as General Allvin has discussed multiple times, both are affected with our ability to get, have more flexibility in how we do parts sustainment,” says Meink during the hearing.
Support for Military Right to Repair
A newly released poll from the US Public Interest Research Group showed likely voters overwhelmingly favor Congress passing a law to give the US military the right to repair their equipment, with more than 70% agreeing and over half of voters agreeing strongly.
Senator Warren highlighted another issue facing the military: price-gouging. She cited an example of Boeing charging the Air Force 80 times the commercial price for a soap dispenser. Last year, the Department of Defense’s inspector general released a report recommending that defense contractors should be required to alert the US government when the price of a part goes up 25% or more, and the government should obtain justification for that price hike. In the hearing, Secretary Meink agreed that getting more data “would be always helpful” for Air Force contracting officers to prevent price-gouging.
Senator Warren concluded the hearing by calling on Secretary Meink and her Senate colleagues to work to get price information into the hands of military contracting officers and to get right-to-repair clauses included in Air Force contracts in order to ensure the service spends its funds more efficiently.
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