U.S. Senator John McCain wrote in a blog post on Sept. 10, 2012 that many defense contractors believe that impending sequestration could lead to serious problems both in national security and employment rates.
(Sequestration is the formal term for mandatory cuts to federal programs – the process of cordoning off money that may have been authorized by Congress but is now prohibited from being spent. Literally, the money is being “sequestered” – taken away from the federal agencies affected. As things now stand, a $1.3 trillion sequester will go into effect in January 2013– slashing more than $500 billion from the military alone.)
McCain, together with Senators Joe Lieberman, Jim Inhofe, Saxby Chambliss, Kelly Ayotte, Lindsey Graham, and John Cornyn asked 13 defense contractors to join them in their appeal to stop the automatic budget cuts.
The Arizona Senator said 12 defense contractors replied and said that sequestration could “devastate the readiness of our armed forces to meet current and future threats to our nation’s security, will eliminate high-paying jobs in the industry, and will have a negative and long-lasting impact on the defense industrial base.”
McCain also stated that George Mason University professor Dr. Steven Fuller estimates that sequestration could cost 1.1 million lost jobs.
He added that many contractors are delaying hiring and capital investments.
Companies who responded to the senators’ letter include Northrop Grumman, Boeing, EADS, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Company, SAIC, and General Dynamics.
