U.S. Chamber Letter on the "Investing in American Defense Technologies Act of 2022"

October 17, 2022

To the Members of the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the bipartisan and bicameral “Investing in American Defense Technologies Act of 2022,” included in both the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, and we urge you to ensure these provisions remain in final legislation.

The Investing in American Defense Technologies Act is intended to strengthen America’s national security industrial and innovation base by advancing the development and production of new military capability through empowering the private sector.   Accelerating the transition of research and innovation – including at the small business and nontraditional enterprise level – into products for the armed forces is critical in domestic efforts to outpace existing and potential adversaries.  

Public-private partnerships, loan guarantees, and other important components of this legislation would speed the process of developing new technologies from concept to prototype, to production, and would help resolve challenges that have long bedeviled Pentagon planners.  Importantly, the legislation would provide benchmarking against other federal private-public partnership program successes.

We believe the Investing in American Defense Technologies Act provisions are important to include in the final defense authorization legislation as a pathway for advancing military innovation, production and applied capability for U.S. and Allied forces. We are eager to work with Congress as the legislative process advances to ensure this legislation gets the level of funding it needs.

Sincerely,

Neil L. Bradley
Executive Vice President, Chief Policy Officer
and Head of Strategic Advocacy
U.S. Chamber of Commerce                                                               

cc: Members of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
      Members of the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense