Arlington, Va (March 11, 2024) – Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) President and CEO Eric Fanning today released a statement following the release of President Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget for the Department of Defense:
“The Aerospace Industries Association – representing hundreds of companies spanning the defense industrial base – has long advocated for strong investment in national security — especially now as we face growing instability, mounting threats, and ongoing economic perturbations. We remain concerned that the defense topline — the product of last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act — falls short of meeting this moment, especially after years of record-high inflation eating up the Pentagon’s buying power,” Fanning said. “The President’s previous supplemental request is a crucial addition to the fiscal year 2024 topline, but it is only a down payment on the long-term investment needed to shore up the defense industrial base. Furthermore, while we understand tough decisions had to be made, this budget makes deep cuts to programs that are critical to our national security and muddies demand signals to industry even as we are called on to do more.
“We have one clear message to send budgetary decision-makers: Investing in deterrence now will leave our nation better off in the future. AIA urges Congress, the Biden Administration, and the Department of Defense to come together to plus up this budget and protect the American way, warfighter, ally, and homeland.”
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