By Emelie Rutherford
An Alabama senator has not relinquished his blockade of two Pentagon nominations as he seeks assurances from Defense Department officials about how the Air Force aerial- refueling tanker competition will proceed in the coming weeks.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) prevented the Senate before the holiday recess from confirming President Barack Obama’s nominations of Erin Conaton to be under secretary of the Air Force and Frank Kendall III to be principal deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics.
Sessions, who backs Northrop Grumman [NOC]-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) in the bitter fight for the tanker contract, has concerns with the aircraft’s draft request for proposals (RFP). A final RFP is expected to be issued to the two tanker competitors–Northrop-EADS and Boeing [BA]–as soon as this month.
“Sen. Sessions maintains his hold on the nominations of Kendall and Conaton, which relate to concerns over the draft RFP for the Air Force tanker,” the senator’s spokesman, Stephen Boyd, said yesterday.
It remains to be seen if Sessions’ concerns will be appeased before Senate votes resume Jan. 20.
While Sessions met with Carter and Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn about the draft tanker RFP on Dec. 16, he wants a further meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Boyd said.
Sessions, Carter, and Lynn “had a productive meeting, but Senator Sessions looks forward to further discussing the tanker competition directly with the (defense) secretary in January,” Boyd said. Sessions has requested a meeting with Gates that has not yet occurred, he added.
The Senate Armed Services Committee, on which Sessions sits, approved Kendall and Conaton’s nominations on Dec. 2. A final Senate vote is the only barrier to each confirmation.
Kendall is a lawyer and Conaton most recently worked as majority staff director of the House Armed Services Committee. The Air Force under secretary position has been vacant since former astronaut Ron Sega resigned in August 2007.
If confirmed, Kendall would be the deputy to Ashton Carter. Carter, Obama’s first under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, logistics, also faced a confirmation delay early last year because of tanker-related concerns of Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). Yet the senators from Alabama, where Northrop-EADS would assemble the tankers, lifted their holds after they said Gates assured them the competition will be conducted in an open manner based on several factors, and not only on the lowest bid (Defense Daily, April 27, 2009).
Northrop Grumman told the Pentagon on Dec. 1 it cannot compete for the tanker contract under the draft RFP’s current terms, spurring Sessions to call for changes to the solicitation (Defense Daily, Dec. 2, 2009).
Northrop Grumman’s backers charge the draft document doesn’t spell out the “best value” competition they said they expected, would inappropriately result in a shootout where the lowest-priced bidder wins, and describes aircraft that are not as advanced as they should be and are akin to the current Eisenhower-era tankers.
Boeing boosters, meanwhile, also want changes made to the draft RFP, including a consideration of European financial support for EADS.
Pentagon and Air Force officials have indicated few changes will be made to the draft RFP before the final solicitation is released, likely this month.