Washington: Boeing

The Worker Privacy saga continues....

I frankly don't know what to make of this. Clearly, Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, who I believe is not seeking reelection in 2010, is taking a shot across the bow of The Boeing Co. How much is jest and how much is real is what I can't figure out.

Responding to recently publicized concerns about the undue influence of lobbying upon legislative decision-making, Representative Brendan Williams (D., Olympia) has introduced House Bill 2316 (placing restrictions on lobbying) – which would add to existing legal limitations upon lobbyists clear direction that a forbidden practice would be to “[t]hreaten any legislator, or any government official, with the relocation of manufacturing jobs, including, but not limited to, jobs involving commercial airplane manufacturing, based upon the outcome of any pending or proposed legislation.

It's a blank slate right now. As blank as Senate Bill 6117, which most likely will be the main vehicle to give Boeing most of what it wants to keep the company from moving its "second line" of production for 787s to Kansas or China or something.

To keep the "first line" of 787 production here, mostly in Everett, then-Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature gave Boeing (and some smaller players in the aerospace space) a $3 billion tax break over 20 years. They also made some changes that Boeing wanted to the state unemployment system, and other stuff.

This time?

"We are wanting to put the best case forward to have the next line of the 787 to be built in Washington," Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, told reporters yesterday.

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is facing a political headwind from the breath of Boeing here in Washington state, according to a report from Politico.com's Jeanne Cummings.

She cites the relative success of Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish) in his race to unseat Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, and Rep. Dave Reichert's (R-Auburn) ability to keep his race a tossup in the 8th Congressional District.

Washington's Congressional delegation spoke out in favor of today's decision by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' decision to re-open the bidding process for the Air Force KC-767 tankers. Airbus had won the initial contract, which would have cost the state's economy a significant amount of money, but the process was discovered to be flawed by the Government Accountability Office.