.jpg)
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, testified in front of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee to request that her Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act be included in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to increase military readiness and cut costs by allowing servicemembers to repair their own equipment, a news release provided by the congresswoman stated
The NDAA is an annual bill required for the authorization of expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The news release included the following remarks from Gluesenkamp Perez:
“One thing I’d like to raise today is military right to repair legislation. When our servicemembers are required to be on hold with a manufacturer, ship parts overseas for simple repairs, when they have to fly an authorized contractor out to work on their equipment, it’s not just costly and demoralizing, candidly, to the technician, it also deprives them of the skill to go out into the workforce and build that asset nationally. This is a long-term cost, not just to our military readiness, but also to our embodied skillset in this nation. And so I would love to have your support in the Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act that requires manufacturers to provide the Defense Department with fair and reasonable access to repair materials.
“Last month, the Trump Administration announced that the Army would be prioritizing right to repair provisions in its (contracts). This is very welcome news, and I hope that other branches of the Armed Services follow suit. There was actually a report recently in the PIRG about military right to repair. In a statistical study, seven out of eight Americans support military right to repair. I don’t know what’s up with the other one person, but this is a broadly held sentiment that this is something that we should be doing as a nation.
“It’s my hope that (the) Committee can build on this bipartisan momentum in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act by including my Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act in base text. By prioritizing repair in defense contracts, we can save our tax dollars that we worked so hard to build.”
Video of Gluesenkamp Perez’s testimony can be found at https://shorturl.at/FwkqO.
