DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Congressmen and senators who represent the Quad-Cities have introduced legislation aimed at bolstering the nation’s arsenals.

TV6 Investigates is unpacking this bill and what it could mean for the Rock Island Arsenal and the Quad-Cities economy.

The Arsenal is the Quad City’s second-largest employer, and thousands of other jobs are tied to contracts on the island.

Lawmakers say the bill will help the Arsenal in three ways:

• It would require minimum workloads.

That means the overall workload on the Arsenal will be guaranteed to not slip below 50% of its capacity, making things more predictable and sustainable.

• That will also help the Arsenal lower costs while remaining competitive with private industry
• And, finally, the bill incentivizes private industry to partner with arsenals by giving them a discount if they do part of the work on the Island.

TV6 Investigates spoke Monday with Micahel Hutchison, executive director of the Rock Island Arsenal Defense Alliance, to put things in perspective. He said the bill could bring blue-collar jobs as well as high-tech ones to work the Island’s new 3D printer.

He said the big takeaway is the minimum workload. It means that at no time can the Arsenal’s manufacturing factory dip below half its capacity, ensuring there’s always a certain amount of work being done.

“This really has the potential of really increasing employment levels on the Arsenal to some degree,” he said. “And it, whether it comes from workload provided directly by the Army, or from workload via those public-private partnerships. It can come either way..”

The other big component is the incentives for business partnerships on the Island. Under the bill, companies would be given discounts if some of the manufacturing happens at the Arsenal.

“And quite frankly, that’s that could potentially be the more important part of this,” Hutchison said. “Because, you know, a lot of innovation is driven out of the private sector, and they’re the ones that are developing the new weapons systems with new technologies. And if we incentivize them to bring that workload at Rock Island Arsenal, that could really be powerful for the arsenal in terms of increasing its capabilities and its knowledge base and its technology base.”

The bill also has national security implications. The Arsenal is producing weaponry for Ukraine’s defense from the Russian invasion.

The bill was just introduced last week and still has to work its way through Congress.

TV6 Investigates asked the Army for comment. It gave a statement that reads:

“We have an exceptional workforce which is focused on producing high-quality and on-time readiness solutions while modernizing for the next fight.”

Copyright 2024 KWQC. All rights reserved.