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INDIANAPOLIS – Congressman Jim Banks is one day removed from hosting the first ever Northeast Indiana Defense Summit. He told Tony Katz that the conference gave him the chance meet with industry leaders who he hopes decide to do business in Indiana.

“We have a significant national defense industry footprint, but The fact of the matter is over the last 10 years we’ve seen the number of jobs in this industry decline in Indiana largely because reduced defense budgets,” he told Tony Katz. “But, over the last few years as we’ve begun to regrow the military, rebuild the military, as we approach trillion dollar annual defense budgets it creates an opportunity for our manufacturing base in Indiana.”

Banks believes in spending money to help protect America, but he also wants that money to go toward advanced technologies like quantum computing.

“It’s not just about maintaining top line defense spending at the levels we are now which is helping us modernize the military, but it’s also about what we prioritize.”

The race to keep up with China’s defenses is also in the back of Banks’ mind. “In China, they’ve surpassed us in hypersonics,” said Banks on Tony Katz today. “They’ve surpassed us in a lot of these other areas that are going to be the key on whether or not China or America controls the keys to the next century.”