BAE to Congress: Shutdown May Force Furloughs

BAE Systems joined other National Defense Industrial Association members in warning Congress Oct. 4 of the trickle-down effect the government shutdown may soon have on the U.S. defense industry.

NDIA President and CEO Lawrence Farrell and Chairman Sean O'Keefe sent a letter to Congressional leaders that widespread furloughs among defense contract workers were "on the horizon."

“As the shutdown is having a terrible and demoralizing impact on government employees, the defense industry is also experiencing serious and negative impacts,” the NDIA letter reads in part. “All of us support an end to the shutdown and a return to regular order in the appropriations process.”

On Oct. 2, U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, of Nashua, was critical of her more conservative tea-party counterparts, accusing them of "taking government funding hostage" with the shutdown.

Ayotte said the scenario now playing out was "foreseeable," and that "shutting down the government in an attempt to defund Obamacare was not a winning strategy for success." 

According to defensenews.com, BAE Systems estimates the shutdown may hit between 10 and 15 percent of its U.S. workforce of nearly 35,000.

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