US Senator Warren probes advocacy groups’ opposition to ‘right to reparation’ By Reuters

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) – U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked defense industry groups how much their members earn from contracts that retain parts and tools, dismissing their opposition to a bill that would give the U.S. military “the right to repair ” own equipment. .

Warren asked the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) and three other industry groups in a letter Wednesday how much they spent lobbying against the provision included in the Senate’s proposed 2025 defense spending bill.

Leading defense contractors, including Boeing (NYSE: ), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: ), Raytheon (NYSE: ) and General Dynamics (NYSE: ), are among the groups’ members.

The provision would require contractors to give the Defense Department “fair and reasonable access” to parts, tools and instructions in an attempt to avoid costly and time-consuming efforts to seek repairs from proprietary service providers, which Warren said decrease military training.

“Restrictions on the right to reparation waste taxpayer dollars and put service members at risk,” Warren wrote, adding that military members stationed around the world, including in active combat, “shouldn’t have to rely on a company thousands of miles away distance. ” to repair broken equipment.

The advent of 3D printers has made it possible for the military to manufacture and repair many of its own parts in the field. But in many cases, OEMs have the right to remove field-repaired parts to charge for replacements — or to force original parts to be installed while the equipment sits idle.

The NDIA, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Aerospace Industries Association, the Professional Services Council and others wrote to the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services Committees in July saying the “right to repair” provision is unnecessary and would discourage their members from selling to the DOD.

Warren rejected that claim in her letter to the three groups, citing public examples of costs and delays resulting from contracts that required members of the military to wait for authorized repair services and, in one case, ship engines from Japan back to the US. rather than repairing them on site.

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts also wrote to the DOD, asking for more examples and how they affected its missions and budget, and asked if the agency would try to use a law that would allow the transfer of intellectual property developed using federal research funds.

Warren asked the groups and the agency to respond by Oct. 11.