The Hill Features Hess, AIA in Sequestration Budget Battle

Pratt & Whitney President David Hess, in his role as chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, described the potential impact of budget sequestration in a story published Tuesday in The Hill. The Washington, D.C.,-based publication, which covers the U.S. Congress, reported the story as Hess and AIA leaders urge legislators to put a stop to sequestration.

Budget sequestration, a series of automatic spending cuts intended to enforce statutory budget limits under the Budget Control Act, could have a significant impact on the U.S. aerospace and defense industry, according to the AIA. The AIA projects more than $500 billion in defense cuts beginning in January and estimates that more than 1.5 million jobs could be lost.

"We just want to go into this with everybody's eyes wide open so they understand what it means," Hess told The Hill. "There's a huge economic impact to the U.S. economy with some of the very premium jobs in the United States: high-tech jobs, high-paying jobs, high-skilled jobs."

Click here to read the story in The Hill's "DEFCON Hill" defense blog.