A Jan. 19 congressional hearing aimed at taking a military contractor to task over price gouging became heated when Republicans criticized the use of committee resources to single out a law-abiding company. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on price gouging in military contracts followed a Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General audit, which found that aerospace manufacturing firm TransDigm Group made “excessive profits” from its business with the military. According to the DOD audit, TransDigm made nearly $21 million in excess profit on 105 spare parts it sold to the DOD between January 2017 and June 2019—between 2.8 and 3,850 percent excess profit on each part. The inspector general defined “excessive profit” as more than 15 percent over cost. TransDigm’s conduct is perfectly legal, but the inspector general found that the company exploited loopholes in the procurement system to charge a higher price. TransDigm’s business strategy included acquiring …