During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke about a 'Right to Repair' law to allow the DoD to repair its own equipment without contractor restrictions.
00:00Speed, right? So we've got a lot of things to figure out, and we're grateful, Mr. Secretary, you're there to help us do that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:06Thank you, Senator Kramer. Senator Warren, you made it by a matter of seconds.
00:11It counts.
00:12You were recognized.
00:13Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. So look, we all want the Air Force to have the money it needs to keep us safe,
00:20and we all want those funds to be spent as effectively and as efficiently as possible.
00:27The Air Force's budget request was about $220 billion last year, and many of those billions going to develop weapons systems.
00:37But even then, contractors try to withhold technical data rights, preventing service members from repairing equipment that the Air Force itself owns.
00:49So, Secretary Mink, you know this problem. During your confirmation process, you said that in a contested logistics environment, quote,
00:59airmen will need to be authorized and empowered to manufacture parts and fix their equipment.
01:06I agree with you on this.
01:08When DOD secures repair rights, that increases our battlefield readiness, and it lowers costs.
01:15When Tinker Air Force Base needed to replace a pressure door handle for the C-5 transport aircraft,
01:25the Air Force manufactured the part itself and saved 95% of the cost because it wasn't tripped up by contractor restrictions.
01:36So, Mr. Secretary, do you agree that this type of major cost savings makes right to repair a strategic priority for the Air Force and for its budget?
01:50Thank you, Senator. Yes, I do agree with that, and that's something I've already had discussions with the team on in the first couple days.
02:00I think it's not only from a cost perspective, Senator.
02:03I think from a readiness perspective, as General Alvin has discussed multiple times,
02:08both are affected with our ability to have more flexibility in how we do parts sustainment.
02:14Absolutely. Okay, cost and readiness.
02:17So, it's no surprise that new polling just released today found that over 70% of voters overwhelmingly favor Congress passing a defense right to repair law.
02:31Americans know that this is a big opportunity to save billions of dollars.
02:36Secretary Driscoll is leading the way with the new Army Transformation Initiative released earlier this month,
02:44making it a standard for Army contracts to include right to repair from day one.
02:51But airmen far from home need to be able to fix their own equipment as well.
02:57They shouldn't be waiting, in some cases we know up to six months, for a refurbished T-38 trainer engine.
03:06So, Mr. Secretary, shouldn't the Air Force adopt a service-wide right to repair policy
03:13like the Army's policy so that we can get grounded jets back into the air faster?
03:20So, Senator, I'm not familiar with the details of what Secretary Driscoll has proposed,
03:26but the idea of having that flexibility I fully support.
03:30Okay.
03:30And again, that's one of the things we're going to be looking at.
03:32I love hearing that you like the idea, but what we've got to do is we've got to put that idea into action.
03:37I mean, right to repair is one important tool for the Air Force to protect its budget,
03:43but contractors will find any way they can to overcharge the military right up until the moment they get caught.
03:51Last year, DOD's Inspector General found that Boeing charged the Air Force 80 times,
03:58that's 8-0 times, the available commercial price for a soap dispenser during a C-17 sustainment contract.
04:09Now, that overcharge was found only through an investigation after the fact,
04:15and sort of by happenstance, it makes you wonder what kind of other overcharges are going unnoticed.
04:22And that is why the IG recommended that contracting officers be notified when a price for an item,
04:30like a spare part, increases over 25%.
04:34Mr. Secretary, would the Air Force be in a better position to detect this kind of price gouging
04:41if your contracting officers had to be notified when there was a price spike?
04:48Yes, Senator. More data in this area would be always helpful.
04:52All right. Good.
04:53You know, I'm working with my colleagues across the aisle to get this type of price information
04:57into the hands of all of our contracting officers,
05:01but the Air Force needs to be updating its own policies as well.
05:06Because we all agree the Air Force's hundreds of billions of dollars should be spent efficiently
05:12to benefit our service members and our taxpayers, not just to benefit contractor executives.
05:19If we can get airmen the right to repair and contracting officers the information they need
05:25to stop price gouging, the Air Force can start buying smarter service-wide.
05:31And I look forward to working with you and with you, Mr. Chairman, and all of my colleagues on this committee
