WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives unanimously passed an amendment by Congressman Thaddeus McCotter to keep sensitive defense technologies, like weapons systems components and aircraft parts, from falling into the hands of terrorists or state sponsors of terrorism.
The amendment, which passed the House unanimously, is now included in the FY-08 Department of Defense Authorization Bill. If enacted into law, this legislation would require the Secretary of Defense to review the Department of Defense’s existing classification procedures regarding surplus U.S. weaponry and report to Congress the measures to be implemented to correct deficiencies.
“Misclassifications have allowed middlemen for countries, including Iran and China, to obtain Humvees, Chinook helicopter engine parts, F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft parts, guided missiles components, full scale B-1 bombers, and underwater mines,” McCotter said. “This is unacceptable from any administration, especially in a time of war.”
McCotter pointed out certain excess DOD property needs to be rendered “demilitarized” by total destruction to prevent sensitive technologies from being sold through the DOD’s excess property reutilization program, known as the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS). McCotter provided glaring instances of DOD codes being incorrectly assigned to excess weapons and other sensitive military technologies and then put out for sale through the DRMS.
The House passed the FY-08 Department of Defense Authorization Bill with Congressman McCotter’s support. The bill was forwarded to the Senate for consideration.
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