US Senator proposes bill to have troops fix equipment instead of contractors

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — U.S. Navy sailors conduct maintenance on an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Aug. 3, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nolan Pennington via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing legislation that would make defense contractors give the U.S. military a "right to repair" its equipment, and require the Department of Defense to include cost-saving measures in plans to buy new weapons.

Proposed amid a cost-cutting push by President-elect Donald Trump, Warren's bill would make contractors give the military "fair and reasonable access" to parts, tools and repair instructions.

Currently, the government is often required to pay contractors like Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, RTX Corp to use expensive original equipment and installers to service broken parts versus having trained military maintainers 3D print spares in the field and install them faster and cheaper.

"Pentagon contractors are taking advantage of our military, forcing them to pay excessive prices and wait weeks for basic equipment repairs. Without the right to repair their own equipment, our servicemembers in the field are at risk," said Warren, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts.

In one instance, U.S. Marines in Japan had to ship engines back to the U.S. for repairs, and in another, the Navy had to fly contractors out to ships at sea to perform simple repairs, according to Warren's office.

Warren previously sought right to repair language in the Senate's 2025 proposed defense spending package. The new bill adds requirements for the DOD to publicly report on cost-saving strategies and incidents where the military is forced to use a contractor to make repairs, and for the Government Accountability Office to review compliance every two years.

U.S. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from Washington state, is sponsoring a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. Keeping repair work contractually limited to companies keeps members of the military from learning crucial skills, she said.

"Military technicians want to be working with their hands to fix things – not getting stuck on the phone on hold with a manufacturer," she said.



(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)