By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate is expected to vote by mid-day today on an proposal to strike from the defense authorization bill funds for buying seven F-22 fighter jets the Pentagon does not want and over which President Obama declared yesterday he would veto the legislation.
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) have been pessimistic about their anti-F-22-funding amendment passing, because of strong Senate support for continuing production of the Lockheed Martin [LMT] stealth fighter beyond the 187 the Pentagon wants. Yet McCain said he hopes Obama’s veto threat, and additional commentary from Pentagon leaders opposed to the F-22 funding, will sway more senators against supporting the aircraft funds.
The $1.75 billion for the F-22s was added during the SASC’s markup of the fiscal year 2010 policy bill, despite McCain and Levin’s objections. Levin said he hopes the Senate will vote before noon today on an amendment he and McCain crafted to delete the funding.
Obama, in letters sent yesterday to Levin and McCain, states his “strong support” for terminating F-22 procurement at 187 jets, which he noted Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other Pentagon leaders want to do.
“That is why I will veto any bill that supports acquisition of F-22s beyond the 187 already funded by Congress,” Obama wrote.
This letter is a more direct veto threat than the standard process of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issuing a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) saying the president’s advisers will recommend he veto a bill if a particular provision is in the final version.
“I appreciate the president’s courage, because right now the votes are not there…to pass this amendment,” McCain said yesterday afternoon.
“We need to have a change in the way we do business in order to save the taxpayers unneeded billions of dollars,” the former Republican White House hopeful said, adding: “but I have no illusions about the influence of the military-industrial complex inn this town.”
Levin said he knows of no other time a president has directly threatened to veto the annual defense policy bill over a specific provision in this way.
“It’s crystal clear and there’s no way a president of the United States can say more directly what President Obama has said this afternoon,” Levin said.
Levin acknowledged jobs will be impacted by shutting down the F-22 production line, but said: “We cannot continue to produce weapon systems forever.”
He highlighted a letter he and McCain received yesterday from Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen expressing their “strong objection” to the F-22 monies.
If the Air Force is “forced” to buy more than 187 F-22s, other service and Pentagon priorities will be hurt, Gates and Mullen wrote, saying they would “strongly recommend” Obama veto the final bill over any added F-22 funds.
The Senate began debating the defense authorization bill yesterday morning. Levin has set an optimistic goal for passing it Thursday, because the Senate will not be voting Friday. Yet debate could spill into next week.
As of Defense Daily‘s deadline, F-22 backers had not yet launched a major Senate floor defense.
Supporters of the F-22 funds include an array of Republicans, including Georgia Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, along with left-leaning senators such as Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.).
Pentagon F-22 boosters include Air Combat Command chief Gen. John Corley and Air National Guard director Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt III.
The Senate also is expected to take up this week a amendment from Lieberman to remove from the bill $438.9 million for continuing the General Electric [GE]-Rolls-Royce second-engine program for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The second-engine funds, which Congress consistently inserts in the budget despite Pentagon objections, were added this year during the SASC markup despite opposition from Lieberman, chairman of the Airland subcommittee.
Lieberman pledged yesterday to work to remove the alternate engine monies and restore them to accounts for developing the F-35 and buying 10 UH-1Y Marine Corps helicopters.
Lieberman’s amendment also would require that before any funds in the authorization bill are obligated for the engine program, the defense secretary must certify the developing and procuring it would reduce the total lifecycle costs of the F-35 program, improve the operational readiness of the fleet, and not disrupt future U.S. air power.
Observers said it is not clear if Obama would veto the defense authorization bill over the F-35 second engine program.
The White House suggested in a June 24 SAP that Obama could veto the version of the defense authorization bill the House passed June 25 over two items: $369 million in advance-procurement funds for parts for more than 187 F-22s and $603 million for developing and buying the F-35 alternate engine.
Yet the June SAP does not outright threaten a veto over the engine matter.
Instead, the statement on the House bill raises concerns about the “unnecessary” engine program delaying the F-35’s fielding. It says the president’s advisers will recommend he veto the final authorization bill if it contains the House-proposed F-22 funding or “would seriously disrupt the F-35 program.” (Defense Daily, June 26)
Yesterday’s letters from Obama, Gates, and Mullen do not cite the F-35 second engine effort.
Still, Obama on May 7 highlighted the alternate engine as one of the defense programs he wants to cancel that “do nothing to keep us safe, but rather prevent us from spending money on what does keep us safe.”
OMB is expected to issue a SAP for the Senate’s defense authorization bill today or tomorrow.
Multiple missile-defense amendments will be offered this week, including one from Lieberman stating it is the sense of the Senate that development work should proceed on the missile-defense site in Poland and the Czech Republican while the administration reviews its plans for long-range defense against Iranian missiles.