Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Getting into trouble has not put a damper on business for the nation’s largest defense contractors.
According to the Department of Defense’s rankings for 2010, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon continued to make more money than all other companies receiving contracts from the military.
The Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group, noted that the Big 5 defense firms all have multiple instances of defense-related misconduct cases—79 in all. This would indicate the Pentagon hasn’t felt the need to redirect business away from the companies, even though some of the misconduct included breaking federal law.
Million-dollar lobbying efforts have probably helped keep deals in place. Boeing, the second biggest contractor in terms of money received, spent the most money lobbying Congress between 2009 and 2010 ($35 million), according to the Sunlight Foundation. Northrop Grumman was second, spending $30 million, while the biggest contractor, Lockheed Martin, came in third after spending $26 million on lobbying.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
The Pentagon's Big Contractors Lobby Big and Get in Big Trouble (by Ryan Sibley, Sunlight Foundation)
The Pentagon’s Top Contractors 2010 (by Mandy Smithberger, Project on Government Oversight)
Lockheed Martin Reaches Deeply into U.S. Government (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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