{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-exposes-dangerous-and-misguided-effort-by-defense-contractor-lobbyists-to-undermine-right-to-repair-reforms", "Warren Exposes \u201cDangerous and Misguided\u201d Effort By Defense Contractor Lobbyists to Undermine Right to Repair Reforms", "2025-11-10", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Warren Exposes \u201cDangerous and Misguided\u201d Effort By Defense Contractor Lobbyists to Undermine Right to Repair Reforms\n\nText of Letter (PDF)\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, wrote to the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the trade association for big DoD contractors, regarding its opposition to the bipartisan right to repair reform in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).\n\n\u201cNDIA\u2019s opposition to these commonsense reforms is a dangerous and misguided attempt to protect an unacceptable status quo of giant contractor profiteering that is expensive for taxpayers and presents a risk to military readiness and national security,\u201d said Senator Warren.\n\nIn September, NDIA published a set of \u201cPolicy Points\u201d attacking bipartisan reforms with baseless claims, including asserting that they will \u201champer innovation and the military\u2019s access to cutting-edge technologies by deterring companies from contracting\u201d with DoD.\n\nRight to repair reforms, which are included in both the House and the Senate versions of the FY26 NDAA, would give DoD the authority to obtain the necessary technical data for service members to repair their equipment in the field, enhance military readiness, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.\n\nThe reforms have broad bipartisan support, including:\n\nThe Trump administration, which recently announced support in a Statement of Administrative Policy;\n\nMilitary veterans, who know first-hand the dangerous impacts of not being able to repair their equipment in the field;\n\nOver 300 small businesses which have come out in support of the reforms and urged Congress to pass them in the FY26 NDAA;\n\nThe Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), which endorsed these reforms saying it would \u201ccreate more opportunities for [their] members to sell their parts to the U.S. military;\u201d\n\nThe Aeronautical Repair Station Association has also come out in support of the reforms, stating that right to repair legislation would lead to \u201cgreater contracting opportunities for small companies, and a broader, more competitive military industrial base;\u201d\n\nDefense contractors themselves, like Palantir, whose Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Executive Vice President (EVP) Shyam Sankar has noted that \u201c[i]n contested logistics environments, particularly in the heat of battle, service members should be empowered to repair and modify their equipment quickly, efficiently, and, when necessary, independently;\u201d and\n\nPentagon leaders, including Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, who recently announced that the Army will ensure right to repair provisions are included in future Army contracts and will identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions in current contracts.\n\nAn independent 2023 report also confirmed that when DoD emphasizes competition, DoD receives more offers per contract it bids.\n\n\u201cBig defense contractors, like some of NDIA\u2019s members, are the ones currently deterring new companies from contracting with DoD [b]y restricting the parts that can be used and the personnel that are allowed to perform a repair,\u201d said Senator Warren.\n\nA recent Government Accountability Office review found that vendor lock for five major weapons programs \u201ccan lead to maintenance delays due to [original equipment manufacturer] availability, inability to obtain spare parts, and increased sustainment costs over time.\u201d The office in charge of DoD acquisition and sustainment reported that even when DoD wants to pay for the needed sustainment rights, \u201ccompanies\u2019 \u2018proposed costs for acquiring technical data, software, or the associated license rights were not deemed fair and reasonable.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cEnabling service members to train in repair and maintenance skills helps them during their service, but also following their separation from the military,\u201d argued Senator Warren, noting that after World War II, tens of thousands of service members returned home and created the specialty automotive aftermarket using the skills they acquired during their service.\n\n\u201cNDIA\u2019s last-ditch efforts to oppose commonsense and bipartisan legislation that is a Trump administration priority appears to be a desperate attempt to cling to a status quo that makes big defense contractors billions of dollars a year at taxpayer expense,\u201d wrote Senator Warren.\n\nShe asked the organization to provide, by November 19, 2025, information about:\n\nNDIA\u2019s lobbying efforts to defeat the reforms;\n\nHow much its members made on operations and maintenance contracts with the military in the last five years;\n\nHow many small businesses NDIA represents and whether they\u2019ve voiced concerns about the proposed reforms; and\n\nA breakdown of NDIA\u2019s members\u2019 stances on the proposed right to repair reforms.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-exposes-dangerous-and-misguided-effort-by-defense-contractor-lobbyists-to-undermine-right-to-repair-reforms"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4371690340340137, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}