WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, along with Senator Pat Roberts, met with the John Young, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Pentagon's top procurement officer, today to further discuss the Air Force refueling tanker contract.

"We had a good meeting and I appreciate the Undersecretary's time. I still have grave concerns about the methodology of the bidding process for the Air Force refueling tanker. It's clear to me from our meeting today that the Department of Defense did not assess the heavily subsidized development costs of the Airbus airframe. This amounts to a fundamentally flawed procurement process which consistently favors proposals from foreign companies and foreign countries. I am also deeply concerned that the Defense Department has not adequately evaluated the security and political risk associated with relying on foreign production for critical defensive needs."