By Rachel Lippmann, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Lawmakers in Washington, DC are expected to approve this week a supplemental budget that would be good news for Boeing. The $106 billion spending bill includes funds to build eight C-17 cargo planes.
Senator Claire McCaskill toured Scott Air Force Base in the Metro East Monday to continue making her case that the Defense Department should continue the C-17 program. The base handles logistics for the entire military and makes heavy use of the cargo planes.
Continued production of the planes is important to product the 1,000 jobs at Boeing, McCaskill said. But there are also more important policy reasons.
"To have an aircraft like that C-17 that has the capability of landing in so many different places under so many different conditions, and has the load capacity that that airplane has, it is very important to logistics that that remain the backbone of our lift capability," she said.
Boeing officials say they need to build 11 planes a year to keep the line operating.