The amendment to cut the EFV & SLAMRAAM programs was rejected by a vote of 306-123, with 79 Democrats and 227 Republicans voting to keep production alive.
Why, when the dominant theme of the day is reducing the deficit by eliminating inefficiencies, would Congress insist on spending money for weapons systems that the military itself does not want?
The weapons are manufactured by two of the world’s largest and most powerful defense contractors — General Dynamics and Raytheon. Combined, in 2010 the two companies spent more than $18 million on lobbying and $3.7 million on direct contributions to Congress, according to data from OpenSecrets.org. That’s just one year. If you look back a couple decades, the companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on influencing decision makers in D.C.
Source: opencongress.org