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Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, hosted an inaugural meeting of the North L.A. Defense Forum in Palmdale Wednesday alongside important government and industry leaders to reduce national security risks. 

On Wednesday, Congressman Garcia hosted the Inaugural North L.A. Defense Forum to address accelerating rapid development, funding challenges, workforce constraints and future program needs. 

“My goal is to take away a lot of common denominator problems that have gone unaddressed and I think we’ve got those already. The value of this really depends on the last hour from the Industry side to clearly communicate what their recommendations and ask’s are but think we are going to get a good product out of this,” said Garcia. 

Some key decision-makers included U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William A. LaPlante, Congressman Ken Calvert representing California’s 41st District and defense companies such as Northrop-Grumman and Lockheed. 

One of the main topics discussed during the Defense Forum was how to speed up the process to help the military get weapon systems sooner. 

Industry leaders, Congress and the Pentagon and other prominent decision-makers were able to give their perspective on why not only the process takes so long, but also to begin to break down barriers to help the process go faster, according to officials. 

The second forum also showcased Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita and surrounding areas.

“Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up and sometimes you have to pull everyone in a room for eight hours like today and go through some of these discussions and this will bear fruit but this is how we make sure we are addressing the concerns,” said Garcia. 

A panel was hosted by participating cities during the defense forum, featuring key leaders from both the Antelope and Santa Clarita Valleys. 

The panel speakers for Santa Clarita included Frank Oviedo, the Assistant City Manager of Santa Clarita, Holly Schroeder, the President & CEO of Santa Clarita Economic Development Corporation, and Dr. Dianne Van Hook, chancellor at College of the Canyons.