Pentagon Chief May Have to Steer Clear of $10 Billion Contractor

[nitpicker]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-15/pentagon-chief-may-have-to-steer-clear-of-10-billion-contractor

Pentagon Chief May Have to Steer Clear of $10 Billion Contractor

by
Anthony Capaccio
and
Anders Melin

?December? ?15?, ?2016? ?5?:?00? ?AM

Retired Marine General James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, may have to recuse himself for at least a year from decisions involving General Dynamics Corp. -- the fifth-biggest U.S. defense supplier with $10 billion in contracts last year -- after serving on its board.

That would take Mattis out of the loop on billion-dollar decisions across the military services: The Pentagon may buy ground-warfare vehicles from General Dynamics for the 65,000 Army troops Trump has promised to add, and it may benefit from his pledge to expand the Navy to 350 vessels by supplying its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Virginia-class nuclear submarines.

Most immediately, the company is the lead contractor to build 12 of the new nuclear missile submarines to replace the aging Ohio class -- the Navy’s top-priority program. Unless current Secretary Ash Carter acts before departing, Mattis and his deputies may inherit a decision on letting the program enter full-scale development. They would also oversee a planned major increase in its funding in the fiscal 2018-2022 plan. A new draft Navy estimate sees procurement spending increasing to $2.8 billion in fiscal 2019 from $773 million this year.
(snip)

As a General Dynamics director since August 2013, Mattis has received at least $276,000 in fees plus equity awards valued at more than $1.03 million as of Tuesday’s close in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About half of those awards are scheduled to vest in the coming years only if Mattis stays on the board.

The Trump transition office didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment about how Mattis intends to handle potential conflicts of interest. Mattis, who retired after a 41-year career in the Marines, has yet to fill out the standard government financial disclosure statement and questionnaire required by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which will hold the confirmation hearing on his nomination, so the full extent of his assets and holdings aren’t known.

Questions raised by Mattis’s participation on the General Dynamics board “are precisely the kinds of issues the committee must examine during the confirmation process,” said Chip Unruh, a spokesman for Senator Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat.

While Mattis would be likely to adjust the Pentagon’s budget proposal for fiscal 2018, which is already being crafted, he may have to step back from decisions such as policies and contracts directly affecting Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics.
(snip)

[SamKnause]

1. I have stopped pretending.

The Republicans are not going to follow the law or rules.

They will do what they want.

They have COMPLETE CONTROL.

[hedda_foil]

2. I think I've lost the ability to pretend that the constitution and law will hold him back.

He's Hitler if Hitler was a moron.