Posted on 04/02/2003 6:05:05 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Congressman Protests Use of French Marble
By ROBERT GEHRKE .c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Colorado congressman is asking the Bush administration to stop making headstones for military veterans from marble bought from a French-owned company.
If the Veterans Administration agrees to Rep. Scott McInnis' request, the additional marble would come from two other quarries - one a Swiss-owned operation in the Colorado Republican's district.
``The French have done everything in their power to undermine the very troops whose sacrifice from which they now stand to profit,'' McInnis said in a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi.
``To force the relatives of our servicemen and women fighting the war in Iraq to mourn their loss under a headstone supplied by a company with French allegiance is an insult that no American soldier or their family should be forced to endure,'' McInnis wrote.
Georgia Marble Company has been quarrying marble in Georgia since 1884. In 1995 it was bought by Imerys, a Paris-based corporation.
``They've produced a product and quality that we think veterans deserve and at the price that taxpayers deserve,'' said VA spokesman Phil Budahn.
Georgia Marble is one of three suppliers of marble for headstones to the VA. The other two are Vermont Quarries Corp., which is owned by two Italian companies, and Sierra Minerals Corp., which leases the Yule Quarry in Colorado from Pleuss-Staufer International Inc., a Swiss company.
``If we eliminate one of the three that will just make us more reliant on the other two,'' Budahn said.
Last week, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., introduced legislation that would prevent the Pentagon from using European-based GSM cell phone technology in postwar Iraq. That move would benefit Qualcomm Inc., a company based in Issa's district that has competing technology.
The statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington is carved from the Georgia-quarried marble. The building surrounding the statue is made from Colorado marble, as is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
Rex Loesby, president of Sierra Minerals, said the French ownership issue was just a small part of a larger letter he had sent McInnis, expressing concerns about the VA management of his contract.
Loesby said his is the only quarry that can produce white marble, but the VA has been buying a large volume of gray marble for headstones at a lower price from Georgia Marble.
``I like to say I could survive ... and I can compete heads-up with anybody, but the truth is I can't,'' Loesby said.
The headstone contracts are up for bid again this summer.
Since 1973, the VA has provided more than 8 million headstones and markers, Budahn said, including bronze markers as well as marble headstones.
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