At Hearing, Air Force Secretary Expresses Support for Right-to-Repair, Preventing Price Gouging in Defense Contracting
Over 70% of voters favor Congress passing a defense right-to-repair law
Warren: “[W]e all agree the Air Force’s hundreds of billions of dollars should be spent efficiently to benefit our service members and our taxpayers, not just to benefit contractor executives.”
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink said he agrees with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and fully supports making right to repair a strategic priority for the Air Force. He also agreed on the need to update the branch’s policies to include right-to-repair in contracts service-wide and prevent defense contractors from price-gouging the military.
As Senator Warren explained, the Air Force’s budget request last year was about $220 billion, with billions going toward developing weapons systems. However, defense contractors’ restrictions prevent servicemembers from repairing Air Force-owned equipment, forcing the service to face delays or pay additional costs when they go back to the contractor for repairs. This month, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll announced that the Army will ensure right-to-repair provisions are included in future Army contracts and will identify and propose contract modifications to current contracts that would benefit from right-to-repair protections.
Senator Warren argued that the Air Force should adopt a service-wide right-to-repair policy like the Army’s Transformation Initiative so airmen can also be able to repair their own equipment. Secretary Meink expressed support for adopting a service-wide right-to-repair policy and said he has already begun discussions with his team on the issue.
“I think it's not only from a cost perspective, Senator, I think from a readiness perspective, as General Allvin has discussed multiple times, both are affected with our ability to get, have more flexibility in how we do parts sustainment,” said Secretary Meink.
A newly released poll from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) showed likely voters overwhelmingly favor Congress passing a law to give the U.S. military the right to repair their equipment, with more than 70 percent agreeing and over half of voters agreeing strongly.
Senator Warren highlighted another issue facing the military: price-gouging. She cited an example of Boeing charging the Air Force 80 times the commercial price for a soap dispenser. Last year, DoD’s Inspector General (IG) released a report recommending that defense contractors should be required to alert the U.S. government when the price of a part goes up 25 percent or more, and the government should obtain justification for that price hike. In the hearing, Secretary Meink agreed that getting more data “would be always helpful” for Air Force contracting officers to prevent price-gouging.
Senator Warren concluded the hearing by calling on Secretary Meink and her Senate colleagues to work to get price information into the hands of military contracting officers and to get right-to-repair clauses included in Air Force contracts in order to ensure the service spends its funds more efficiently.
Transcript: Hearings to examine the posture of the Department of the Air Force in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2026 and the Future Years Defense Program
Senate Armed Services Committee
May 20, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. So look, we all want the Air Force to have the money it needs to keep us safe, and we all want those funds to be spent as effectively and as efficiently as possible. The Air Force's budget request was about $220 billion last year, and many of those billions going to develop weapons systems. But even then, contractors try to withhold technical data rights, preventing service members from repairing equipment that the Air Force itself owns.
So, Secretary Meink, you know this problem. During your confirmation process, you said that in a contested logistics environment, quote, “Airmen will need to be authorized and empowered to manufacture parts and fix their equipment.” I agree with you on this. When DoD secures repair rights, that increases our battlefield readiness and it lowers costs. When Tinker Air Force Base needed to replace a pressure door handle for the C-5 transport aircraft, the Air Force manufactured the part itself and saved 95% of the cost because it wasn't tripped up by contractor restrictions.
So, Mr. Secretary, do you agree that this type of major cost savings makes right-to-repair a strategic priority for the Air Force and for its budget?
Secretary Troy E. Meink: Thank you, Senator. Yes, I do agree with that, and that's something I've already had discussions with the team on in the first couple of days. I think it's not only from a cost perspective, Senator, I think from a readiness perspective, as General Allvin has discussed multiple times, both are affected with our ability to get, have more flexibility in how we do parts sustainment.
Senator Warren: Absolutely. Okay, cost and readiness. So it's no surprise that new polling just released today found that over 70% of voters overwhelmingly favor Congress passing a defense right-to-repair law. Americans know that this is a big opportunity to save billions of dollars.
Secretary Driscoll is leading the way with the new Army Transformation Initiative released earlier this month, making it a standard for Army contracts to include right-to-repair from day one. But airmen far from home need to be able to fix their own equipment as well. They shouldn't be waiting, in some cases, we know, up to six months for a refurbished T-38 trainer engine.
So, Mr. Secretary, shouldn't the Air Force adopt a service-wide right-to-repair policy like the Army's policy so that we can get grounded jets back into the air faster?
Secretary Meink: So, Senator, I'm not familiar with the details of what Secretary Driscoll proposed, but the idea of having that flexibility, I fully support, okay, and again, that's one of the things we're going to be looking at.
Senator Warren: I love hearing that you like the idea, but what we got to do is we got to put that idea into action. Right-to-repair is one important tool for the Air Force to protect its budget, but contractors will find any way they can to overcharge the military right up until the moment they get caught. Last year, DoD’s Inspector General found that Boeing charged the Air Force 80 times. That's eight zero times the available commercial price for a soap dispenser during a C-17 sustainment contract. Now that overcharge was found only through an investigation after the fact and sort of by happenstance. It makes you wonder what kind of other overcharges are going unnoticed, and that is why the IG recommended that contracting officers be notified when a price for an item like a spare part increases over 25%.
Mr. Secretary, would the Air Force be in a better position to detect this kind of price gouging if your contracting officers had to be notified when there was a price spike?
Secretary Meink: Yes, Senator, more data in this area would be always helpful.
Senator Warren: All right, good. I'm working with my colleagues across the aisle to get this type of price information into the hands of all of our contracting officers. But the Air Force needs to be updating its own policies as well, because we all agree the Air Force's hundreds of billions of dollars should be spent efficiently to benefit our service members and our taxpayers, not just to benefit contractor executives. If we can get airmen the right-to-repair and contracting officers the information they need to stop price gouging, the Air Force can start buying smarter service-wide. And I look forward to working with you and with you, Mr. Chairman and all of my colleagues on this committee to get it done. Thank you.
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