1 week Ago
Building on an area of focus during her first term in Congress, U.S. Rep.
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, has joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, to introduce new right to repair legislation. On Thursday, the Democratic lawmakers introduced the Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act, which they say would “ensure our military is provided with the tools and materials needed to maintain the equipment it has purchased.
” “Maintaining a ready and agile military is dependent on our servicemembers being able to repair their own equipment quickly and effectively. Military technicians want to be working with their hands to fix things — not getting stuck on the phone on hold with a manufacturer. Shipping equipment out for repair or bringing authorized contractors to sea or the battlefield isn’t just costly, challenging, and time-consuming — it deprives servicemembers of experience fixing the equipment they rely on to stay safe in hostile situations,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement.
“By ensuring our military has the ability to fix critical equipment, we can empower our servicemembers, boost military readiness, save taxpayer dollars, and bring back respect for these skills.” If passed, the legislation would: • Ensure contractors provide the military with “fair and reasonable” access to repair materials • Define “fair and reasonable” as providing similar prices, terms and conditions as those made available to the contractor’s authorized repair providers • Require that each major weapons program’s acquisition strategy includes three cost-saving proposals • Mandate a report on cost-saving strategies • Require the Pentagon to assess the cost-effectiveness of access to intellectual property • Provide flexibility to access and use repair data • Require the Pentagon to track and publicly report instances when the military is forced to have a contractor repair equipment because of right-to-repair restrictions • Promote accountability According to the lawmakers, the legislation has the support of the Project on Government Oversight, the American Economic Liberties Project and the U.S.
Public Interest Research Group. “Pentagon contractors are taking advantage of our military, forcing them to pay thousands and wait weeks for basic equipment repairs. Without the right to repair their own equipment, our servicemembers in the field are at risk,” Warren said in a statement.
“I’ve long pushed for cutting waste out of the Pentagon budget, and this bill cuts out greedy contractors by empowering servicemembers and creating competition.”.
