Aerospace and Defense Lobbyists Line Up to Sway Special CommitteeSeptember 22, 2011
 A phalanx of lobbyists, from industries ranging from real estate to hedge funds, is lining up to pressure a special Congressional committee seeking to cut $1.2 trillion to spare their sector, according to an article in The New York Times. The defense and aerospace industries, perhaps, have the most at stake. Aerospace executives warned of the consequences if Congress were to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in Pentagon spending, including massive job losses. Dick McNeel, who runs a company that supplies military parts, said it was part of an effort to "make sure Washington knows how we feel," the article reported. This special committee is the target of intense lobbying because of its unique mandate: Make recommendations for debt reductions by Thanksgiving, and if those recommendations are not approved in an up-or-down vote on the Senate and House floors, a set of automatic cuts will be triggered. No amendments or filibusters are permitted on this committee's recommendations. If automatic cuts are triggered, the Pentagon will take a hit of $55 billion per year for 10 years. This would occur before Social Security, Medicare and food stamps programs are touched. "Everybody's at risk," Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, told the Times, "and so everyone's going to be out there lobbying." |
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