By Emelie Rutherford
The House is expected to take up a $183.69 billion multi-year war-supplemental funding bill as soon as tomorrow that would not include any additional money for the Air Force’s F-22 jets.
As House leaders have finalized the legislation, they did not include roughly $500 million in F-22 long-lead funding sought by House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.), though not requested by the Pentagon.
The money is intended to stave off a shut down of the Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built jets production line, and keep it running in FY ’10. Air Force officials have said they need to know by November if money will be available to keep the line humming.
Sources said the Senate did not want to add the F-22 money, and that the Air Force wasn’t pushing as hard as expected for the monies.
Murtha yesterday said he is still trying to add the F-22 funds.
“The Senate still hasn’t made up their mind,” he said, after he and House Appropriations Committee (HAC) Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) briefed reporters on the version of the war supplemental House leaders plan to take to the floor.
The F-22 money is “out for the moment, but that doesn’t mean anything,” Murtha said. “Yesterday it was in, today it’s out, but it could be in tomorrow. We’d like to see it in, because that line stops if you don’t get it in.”
Murtha said he wants to add the F-22 money to the supplemental because it is not clear if Congress will pass a FY ’09 base defense appropriations bill.
“See the problem is…there may not be a defense bill this year, so that money wouldn’t be available and then a lot of things fall apart,” he said. “That’s our problem.”
Murtha and Obey addressed reporters in Obey’s office after House Democrats were briefed on the bill’s details. Obey’s spokeswoman said the bill, long hashed out behind closed doors, could hit the House floor as soon as tomorrow.
House Democrats are moving to skip over a HAC markup of the bill, to the objection of Republicans in the chamber. The Senate Appropriations Committee, however, yesterday announced it is holding a markup of the supplemental tomorrow afternoon.
The House version of the bill, in its current form, includes other aircraft adds Murtha sought: 15 of Boeing‘s [BA] C-17 cargo airplanes, and 34 Lockheed Martin aircraft–18 C-130Js, seven MC-130Js and nine KC-130J tankers (Defense Daily, May 2).
The Pentagon did not address shutting down the F-22 line or building any aircraft beyond the 183 planned in its FY ’09 budget request–thus leaving the matter to the next president.
While Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England in January said the Pentagon would make a FY ’09 supplemental request for four more F-22s, the detailed $70 billion FY ’09 request the White House sent to Congress last Friday cites no funds for F-22s. The Pentagon did not respond to questions from Defense Daily by press time on whether the plans for those four F-22s have changed.
The administration asked Congress for $70 billion in “bridge” FY ’09 supplemental war funds–for part of the fiscal year–when it submitted the Pentagon’s base budget proposal in February, but lawmakers were not given details on the request until last week.
The Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its version of the FY ’09 base defense authorization bill last week and deferred the F-22 production line issue to the next administration. Its marked-up bill includes $497 million for either F-22 advance procurement to continue the production line in FY ’10, or for shutting down the aircraft production line, according to a summary.
House authorizers are working on their version of the FY ’09 base defense authorization this week. The House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its version of the bill today.
Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, said that while “support for the production of F-22s remains quite strong among House appropriators, there clearly has been an erosion in the upper chamber due in part to heavy pressure from the Deputy Secretary of Defense [Gordon England] and the Under Secretary for Acquisition [John Young].”
“Two months ago it looked likely that long-lead items would be provided by both chambers for continuation of the production line, but now that decision will probably be left to the next administration, which suggests at least some disruption in the production line, without long-lead production,” said Thompson, who has strong ties to industry and the Air Force.
The war supplemental legislation the House is eyeing would be for the rest of FY ’08 and FY ’09 until June 1, 2009. The price tag for most of the bill would be $183.69 billion- -just shy of the $183.77 billion in funding the White House is seeking, Obey said. The House bill’s pricetag rises over the $183.69 figure when two requested items are added–an expansion of GI Bill benefits and an extension of unemployment compensation, he said.
Obey said members will be able to vote on three parts of the bill — on the proposed funding, on imposing conditions on the money, and on adding other funding for items including childcare, military housing, and international food aid. The legislation will call for pulling troops out of Iraq, he said.
The HAC Chairman said there is “not a single piece of pork in this bill, there is not a single member project in this bill.”
Murtha said lawmakers are “trying to rebuild the military.”
“We’re trying to rehabilitating them, trying to get them back into the position they should be in in order to prevent a war, let alone fight a war,” he said.