NTMA Member Roy Sweatman Warns of Damage to Manufacturing by Automatic Defense Cuts in Orlando Sentinel Op-Ed

Congrats to Roy Sweatman for his op-ed in today's Orlando Sentinel "Reckless Defense Cuts Would Hurt Small Firms and Military."

In the op-ed, Roy points out that a most specialized skills and technical expertise are found in the defense and aerospace supply chain made up of small and medium sized companies across the United States.  "Seventy cents out of each military purchasing dollar goes to such supply-chain firms, which are home to more than two-thirds of defense manufacturing jobs."

Because Congress and the President failed to reach a long term deal on spending, automatic spending cuts will start on January 2, 2013.  The automatic spending cuts would result in a $492 billion cut in defense spending and $171 billion in entitlement programs.  The process is known as "sequestration" where an amount of money equal to the difference between a cap set by a budget resolution and the amount appropriated is "sequestered" by the U.S. Treasury Dept.  In order to pressure themselves to make a deal, Congress authorized automatic spending cuts for both defense and entitlement programs if they could not reach an agreement on spending.  To date, no agreement has been reached.

Roy warns in the op-ed:

Such abrupt and indiscriminate cuts will wreak havoc on the aerospace defense chain of supply as they flow down from the large prime contractors to the small businesses that do so much of the actual work. Economists say more than 1 million defense-connected jobs could be lost in 2013. That means a proportional hit of 600,000 jobs at small and midsized manufacturing shops. Congress might have aimed for a few wealthy megafirms, but it's machine shops, tool and die presses, and family-owned businesses in every district in every state that will take the ultimate hit.

The cost in jobs is painful enough, but the loss of technical excellence and capabilities is an even greater concern. My company, for example, has the only water jet deburring system in the U.S. — basically a computer-controlled machine using a tiny stream of high-pressure water to remove metal imperfections in high-grade mechanical parts.

NTMA's One Voice team in Washington, DC is conveying this same message to Members of Congress and the Administration.

Congratulations Roy for describing the peril that manufacturing faces because of these cuts.  Read the article here.