By Emelie Rutherford
The Pentagon and White House reminded lawmakers this week if the final fiscal year 2010 defense appropriations bill continues the canceled VH-71 presidential helicopter program President Obama would veto it.
Yet administration officials stopped short of promising a presidential veto of the Pentagon budget measure if it includes funding the administration did not request for the F- 35 Joint Strike Fighter’s second alternate engine and for C-17 cargo aircraft.
For the General Electric [GE]-Rolls-Royce alternate engine effort, Defense Secretary Gates in a Oct. 14 letter to House and Senate appropriations panel leaders reiterated previous administration statements. Gates said the Pentagon “strongly objects” to the engine program’s inclusion in the House-passed appropriations bill, and that if the final House-Senate compromise bill would “seriously disrupt” the overall F-35 program he would recommend Obama veto the legislation.
House and Senate appropriators are expected to meet as soon as next week to hash out differences in each chamber’s appropriations measures. The House but not the Senate measure includes $560 million for the F-35 alternate engine and $400 million in VH-71 helicopter funding.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters Wednesday Pentagon officials “are in the process right now of evaluating whether or not what (lawmakers) are doing or have done does adversely impact the overall program.”
Morrell said the “action taken thus far by the Congress (on the alternate engine) is clearly troubling, but we need to gain a better understanding of its impact, and not just for one year but the long- term costs associated with pursuing a second engine.”
The final FY ’10 defense authorization bill–policy-setting legislation that will be sent to Obama after one final Senate vote, likely next week–includes the F-35 alternate engine program while also fully authorization funding for the overall F-35 aircraft effort.
Like Gates did, Peter Orszag, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said in an Oct. 13 letter to appropriators that the president’s senior advisers would recommend a veto of the bill if the alternate engine effort would “seriously disrupt” the overall F-35 program.
For the Lockheed Martin [LMT] VH-71 presidential chopper, Gates said: “If the final bill were to include funds that continue the existing VH-71 program, or would prejudge the plan to re-complete the Presidential helicopter, I would recommend that the President veto the bill.” Orszag delivered a near-identical message.
The House-passed bill would operationalize five of the VH-71 choppers from the canceled effort.
Gates and Orszag said they “strongly object” to funding in both the chambers’ bills for Boeing [BA] C-17s. The Senate measure funds 10 of the cargo haulers and the House version includes three.
Gates and Orszag sent the letters to the chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees and their defense subcommittees.