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Rockford, Illinois - Congressman Bobby Schilling (IL-17) and House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Subcommittee on Readiness Chairman Randy Forbes (VA-04) this week toured the Rock Island Arsenal, the Quad Cities' largest employer, and held forums in Moline with Congressman Dave Loebsack (IA-02) and in Rockford with Congressman Don Manzullo (IL-16) on defense manufacturing capabilities and how local communities will be impacted by defense cuts if sequestration is not avoided.
Participating in the Moline forum with Forbes, Schilling, and Loebsack were a number of stakeholders and employees from the Quad Cities. This morning Forbes and Schilling joined Don Manzullo at Rockford's SupplyCore, one of the area's top military contractors. SupplyCore provides supply chain management services and distributes maintenance, repair, and operations materiel. SupplyCore this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and has approximately 90 employees in Rockford.
"Our national debt, which is approaching $16 trillion - or $50,000 for every person in this country - is a national security threat and we must find ways to bring our spending under control," Schilling said. "Our military makes up 20 percent of our federal budget, but has contributed more than half of the deficit reduction measures we've taken thus far. Military leaders and defense contractors alike are concerned about these cuts.
"It's important that Congress works to address America's spending crisis and national debt in ways that don't put our warfighters at additional risk or provide them with subpar equipment," Schilling continued. "Placing our warfighters at risk isn't the solution to our debt problem."
During last summer's debt ceiling negotiations, the Senate majority, which now hasn't passed a budget in more than three years, put forward a plan that didn't address the underlying spending problem. Schilling and his colleagues in the House, on the other hand, repeatedly voted to tackle deficits over the long term while avoiding government default.
If an alternative plan is not approved, across-the-board spending cuts will be enforced under the Budget Control Act that will result in an 8 percent cut to non-defense discretionary spending and a 10 percent cut to the Department of Defense, beginning in January 2013. The Administration agrees that these cuts would be "catastrophic" and "disastrous".
Immediate action can be taken by Congress and the President to responsibly reduce the deficit, but only the House has passed legislation that works towards these shared goals. On May 10, Schilling voted for a proposal to replace the first year's cuts with spending reforms. He is also a cosponsor of H.R. 5872, the Sequestration Transparency Act, which requires a report from the Administration on its plans for implementing the sequester.
"I'm honored to serve the employees of the Rock Island Arsenal and all those men and women from our area who work so hard to provide the best possible tools and equipment to our service members," Schilling said. "My sincere thanks to Chairman Forbes for taking the time to come to our area and see firsthand the assets to our national security and our local economy that I'm fighting to preserve and strengthen. I will continue working with the Chairman and our colleagues in the House on policies to preserve our national security, provide for our warfighters, responsibly reduce our deficit, and give military leaders and defense contractors the certainty and transparency they need from the Administration moving forward."
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