Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick was in south-central Pennsylvania on Tuesday to boast about how multi-billion-dollar increase in federal defense spending will benefit companies and workers in the state.
“ There’s a defense reindustrialization going on in America, and Pennsylvania should be at the center of that reindustrialization,” McCormick, a Republican, said during a tour of BAE Systems’ Combat Mission Systems plant, which makes armored and other vehicles for the military.
McCormick was touting the $156.2 billion allocated for military spending in President Donald Trump’s fiscal bill H.R. 1, better known as his Big Beautiful Bill.
McCormick said defense and foreign policy under Trump is aimed at increasing American military spending and spending by its allies. That money could end up in the state’s economy if allies buy armored multipurpose vehicles or other military equipment built in Pennsylvania.
“ Pennsylvania should be the beneficiary and the leader in much of the revamping and the Renaissance in defense,” McCormick said, listing off the state’s defense supply base in Johnstown, the Philadelphia shipyard, the Army’s AI center in Pittsburgh, and companies like the one in York County he visited Tuesday.
Republican Congressmen Scott Perry, representing Dauphin County and large swaths of Cumberland and York counties, and Lloyd Smucker, representing Lancaster and York counties, joined McCormick on the facility tour. So did other influential Republican officials from York County — state Sen. Dawn Keefer, state Rep. Seth Grove, and county President Commissioner Julie Wheeler.
Keefer called the facility “a great boon” to the economy and source of skilled jobs.
BAE’s York manufacturing site sits on over one million square feet and employs 1,800 people, including 730 represented by the United Steelworkers union. The company says the one site has a $1.2 billion economic impact on the country, including $400 million in payroll and benefits for its workers and $764 million in subcontractors and purchase orders.
BAE spokesman Tim Paynter said the tour was to help the lawmakers learn about the facility’s operations, and that the company has offered similar tours to many public officials. Paynter is not aware of additional funding for BAE Systems from the Big Beautiful Bill at this time, he said, though it is likely too early to know exactly where that money is going.
Perry said investing in plants like the one in York is part of revamping the military to focus on lethality.
“Welcome to ground zero of securing the nation and of quite honestly the rest of the world,” Perry said.
He does not expect the vehicles to be deployed to Ukraine, a U.S. ally at war with Russia, which invaded the country in 2022.
“ I think that this president has shown on numerous occasions over and over again, he’s actually less interested in that than any president probably in our lifetime in getting involved in ground combat in these other conflicts,” Perry said.
AI and energy part of Pennsylvania’s economic future
McCormick, Smucker and Perry said they expect investments in artificial intelligence, including for national security purposes, will also be a key to Pennsylvania’s economic future. That goes hand-in-hand with increased energy production, given the amount of electricity needed to power the data centers required to run AI.
”You can’t say AI revolution or AI innovation without saying energy innovation,” McCormick said.
That energy will come from fossil fuels, Smucker said, as guaranteed by the Big Beautiful Bill.
“ One of the things that we did in this bill was deregulating where we can, by encouraging new development of energy, fossil fuels, every type of energy really,” Smucker said.
Perry said the U.S. has no choice but to win the AI race with China. He said renewable energy solutions were not the answer for meeting the increase in energy demands, which require a “baseload reliable power, which is under our feet in Pennsylvania,” referring to natural gas which is accessed by fracking.
Last month, McCormick hosted a gathering in Pittsburgh to tout the benefits of AI that was attended by Trump.
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