By Jen DiMascio
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, vowed not to sign the conference report of the committee’s most important annual bill because of an earmark.
The $2.28 billion sticking point authorizes the purchase of eight C-17 Globemaster aircraft. It is tucked in a supplemental package attached to the defense authorization bill that House and Senate lawmakers agreed to in conference last week.
The House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the bill today before it is forwarded to the floor for a vote.
According to a statement by McCain, the plus-up provided for Boeing [BA] C-17s makes up half of the total “pork” in the authorization bill, “which we do not need nor can we afford.”
“In my view, the massive pork spending in this conference report renders it a frontal assault on this body’s purported commitment to ethics and earmark reform and results in an inexcusable failure in our obligation to the taxpayer. By declining to sign this conference report today, I respectfully convey to the Chairman and my fellow conferees my belief that we can, and for the sake of the warfighter and taxpayer, we must do better.”
The funding for C-17 was sponsored by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) , Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) and Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R- Calif.), according to the conference report, which since the passage of ethics laws requires disclosure of congressional plus-ups.
Boeing has pushed for funding, saying it is crucial to keeping production lines alive. The Air Force did not formally request dollars for C-17 this year or last year, when Congress added funding for 10 of the planes.
But according to those who have watched the process unfold, the Air Force sought the aircraft all along.
“I think the Air Force wanted the planes secretly, they just didn’t want to use their own money,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for the Teal Group.
The authorization bill attempts to resolve this annual game of chicken by requiring a study on the military’s need for intratheater airlift by Jan. 10, 2009.
That study is supposed to consider a number of options, such as a plan floated informally by the Air Force called the “30-30 plan.” The service has pitched the idea as a way to retire aging C-5 Galaxy aircraft in a way that offsets the cost of purchasing additional C-17s. Congress still has not given the Air Force the authority to retire the C-5s.
McCain is typically a believer in truth in budgeting and is often pro-reform when it comes to platforms like this, Aboulafia said.
But because his protest has a point, doesn’t mean it will go anywhere. The political calculus of the presidential election make it seem difficult, he said.
“It’s tough to imagine the last plane manufactured in California expiring in an election year,” Aboulafia said.
To move forward, congressional appropriators would have to approve additional funding for C-17s in a war supplemental next year.
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said last week appropriators are likely to add funding for additional airlift –14 C-17s–in that legislation, he said (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).
Members of the Air Force are beginning to discuss the need for additional airlift. Last week, Gen. Norton Schwartz, commander of Transportation Command, recommended buying additional C-17s but said he could not recommend canceling a key C-5 refurbishment program–the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).