Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) wrote to General Accountability (GAO) Office Comptroller Gene Dodaro this week requesting a report on the role of imports on the U.S. defense industrial base.
In recent years, the pace of globalization has accelerated dramatically, altering supply relationships throughout the world economy. Defense manufacturers increasingly rely on imports for critical equipment and parts.
Brown and Bayh are seeking the GAO report to provide more information to lawmakers as they address changing supply relationships in defense manufacturing.
In a Business Week cover story published this week, Melissa E. Hathaway, head of cyber security in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, stated, "Counterfeit products have been linked to the crash of mission-critical networks, and may also contain hidden 'back doors' enabling network security to be bypassed and sensitive data accessed."
"Recent reports highlighting tainted food and faulty product imports from China and other exporting countries also have potential implications for our military," Senators Brown and Bayh wrote in the letter to Dodaro. "Our national defense system must not be compromised by supply chain interruptions or faulty products, and the men and women who serve our nation must not be placed at risk by the procurement of substandard imports."
In the letter, Brown and Bayh specified 10 areas of inquiry for GAO to examine, including Department of Defense (DoD) import safety procedures, potential U.S. jobs loss implications, and assessments of long term capabilities for the U.S. defense manufacturing industry.
"The safety and security of our nation must be our paramount concern,"
they wrote. "It is important that policymakers have adequate information to determine risks and take steps to ameliorate any threats that exist."