Del Toro asks Navy contractors to consider taxpayers over shareholders
By Colin Demarest
Thursday, Feb 15
SAN DIEGO — U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has a message for government contractors: Ask not what you can do for your shareholders, ask what you can do for your country.
Speaking at the West naval conference in San Diego on Feb. 15, Del Toro, a former businessman, said that in a time of war abroad and political uncertainty at home, the U.S. needs companies to deliver weapons, warships, aircraft and more on time, on budget and without excuses.
“You can’t be asking the American taxpayer to make even greater public investments while you continue, in some cases, to goose your stock prices through stock buybacks, deferring promised capital investments, and other accounting maneuvers that, to some, seem to prioritize stock prices that drive executive compensation rather than making the needed, fundamental investments in the industrial base, in your own companies, at a time when our nation needs us to be at all-ahead flank,” he said.
https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2024/02/15/del-toro-asks-navy-contractors-to-consider-taxpayers-over-shareholders/