- Hexcel, a Utah-based company, leads in manufacturing high-strength carbon fiber materials.
- Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer and Rep. Maloy toured Hexcel's West Valley City plant.
- Hexcel's carbon fiber aids defense aircraft and systems like the proposed Golden Dome.
SALT LAKE CITY — During her short visit to Utah this week, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer at one point found herself clothed head to toe in personal protective equipment and surrounded by some of the strongest manufacturing materials in the world.
The carbon fiber spools were being produced by Hexcel, one of the leading manufacturers of the high-strength material that operates part of its production in a massive manufacturing plant located in West Valley City. As Chavez-DeRemer toured the facility on Friday, the Trump administration official pressed top-ranking leaders on how they develop the materials — and how the federal government can support those efforts.
Chavez-DeRemer was accompanied by Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee tasked with helping to provide federal funding to organizations like Hexcel to develop state-of-the-art manufacturing materials. Hexcel receives those funds through national defense appropriations approved by Congress every year, which the senior leadership team says is crucial to building stronger products.
"I get hit up by a lot of people who are asking for programmatic language or funding in the bills for something that they think would be amazing," Maloy told the Deseret News after the tour. "When I can come see what they're doing and hear firsthand and see firsthand how it impacts national security, then it's easier for me to separate fact from fiction when people are coming in and asking for funding."
What is carbon fiber — and how is it crucial to the national defense realm?
Carbon fiber is a high-strength chemical material that is created from thin strands of carbon atoms fused together in a crystalline structure.
The fiber is lightweight, which makes it a valuable tool for cars, airplanes, and military aircraft because it uses less energy and can be shaped into specific designs that traditional metals cannot easily do. Carbon fiber is considered a strategic material because high-quality production is possible in just a handful of countries, giving the United States an opportunity to be a global leader in the manufacturing space.
Hexcel is the only aerospace-grade carbon fiber manufacturing company that is headquartered in the United States, which organization leaders say is important to ensure the country is not reliant on foreign countries and can develop independently with intellectual property that is completely U.S.-owned.
The carbon fiber produced by Hexcel is designed to extend aircraft range and to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, according to the company.
The facility has put that production to use by helping innovate defense aircraft and key military programs such as the F-35 Lightning II, CH-53K King Stallion, UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache and more. The manufacturing plant in Utah works closely with 47G, a prominent industry company in Utah that specializes in aerospace and defense.
Hexcel is even working to make itself valuable in the production of high-profile defense systems, including the Golden Dome introduced by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
The Golden Dome is a proposed multilayered defense system aimed at protecting the United States' airspace from foreign missile attacks and other threats, akin to the Iron Dome in Israel. Trump announced his plans to develop the Golden Dome earlier this year, setting the stage for defense industries across the country to play a role.
Hexcel leaders mentioned Golden Dome on the tour with Chavez-DeRemer and Maloy on Friday as one of several opportunities for the company, although they did not speak directly with the Labor secretary about how they'd get involved.
Maloy to bolster national defense spending
Maloy sits on the House Appropriations Committee, which spearheads the process of funding the federal government and providing funds to organizations and projects.
Hexcel could fall under the category of the Department of Defense appropriations, which, if passed, would greenlight federal funds to be used for missile defense, space programs and other aerial systems. That bill, one of 12 that make up the full appropriations process, passed the House in July but has yet to be considered by the Senate.
But Congress is facing a number of obstacles in passing its annual appropriations bills, which must be finalized and signed by Trump before Oct. 1 or else the government will enter a shutdown — effectively freezing funding for a slew of federal agencies until legislation is passed.
The process is historically bipartisan, but some Democrats are cautiously approaching the negotiating table with fears that Trump might upend any deals.
Senate Democrats have repeatedly warned they may not support legislation to avert a shutdown unless Republicans can guarantee they won't later vote along party lines to strip the funding unilaterally. Republicans passed a rescissions package eliminating $9 billion in already-approved spending last month, and Trump already has plans for more spending cuts.
That could threaten increased federal funding for some groups — and it's prompting whispers of potentially kicking the can further down the road with what's known as a continuing resolution. Such a move would continue government funding at its current levels, which Maloy warns could harm defense innovation.
"Every time we've been in a situation where we're talking about a (continuing resolution), it's the national defense people that are the most concerned," Maloy told the Deseret News. "Because when projects get frozen, when program funding gets locked in, they can't innovate. We've got to be able to innovate in the national defense space to make sure that we are prepared for the conflicts of the future, not just what we've done in the past."
