Lieu Hosts Aerospace Select Committee Hearing

Sacramento , CA – Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), newly appointed Chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace Industry, convened the first Committee hearing for this year, titled: “The State of California Aerospace 2006”.

It has been seven years since the Select Committee on Aerospace has taken a comprehensive look at the industry’s current and future position in California.

“The purpose of today’s Aerospace Committee hearing was to understand the current status of the aerospace industry in California,” said Assemblymember Lieu. “We brought together some of the top executives from the aerospace industry, along with labor representatives, to talk about some of the challenges that this industry faces.”

The aerospace industry is one of the largest private industry sectors in California. Collectively, the aerospace companies employ more than 100,000 employees and thousands of contractors and subcontractors. Innovations by the aerospace industry have resulted in products that improve the quality of life of our citizens, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), weather satellites, and microwave ovens.

In recent years, there has been a reduction in the number of aerospace jobs in California.

“These are exactly the kind of jobs our economy needs: high-wage, high-skill, with good career paths,“ Lieu said. “We need to have an active dialogue about how we keep them in California.”

Aerospace representatives in attendance were from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, The California Space Authority, and the International Association of Machinists.