By Emelie Rutherford
Lawmakers said yesterday they need more time than anticipated to craft a supplemental war-funding bill, and a lead defense appropriator said he still wants to tack billions in funding and a mandate for a tanker dual buy onto President Obama’s request.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) cast doubt on Congress passing the supplemental by Memorial Day, as the Pentagon requested. He told reporters a previously described schedule–calling for the full House Appropriations Committee (HAC) to mark up the bill next week–is delayed by one week.
“We wanted to get the whole thing done by Memorial Day, (but) the Senate won’t have time, I don’t think,” Murtha said after a closed HAC-D hearing on the supplemental with U.S. Central Command head Army Gen. David Petraeus.
Senate appropriators may hold a hearing next week on the supplemental with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Sources tracking the bill also predicted it may not pass Congress by the one-week Memorial Day recess, which begins May 23.
Without the new infusion of war funds the Army projects it “can make it through payday 1 July,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli told the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee yesterday, adding: “We would like to see that supplemental approved weeks prior to that, which will ensure we have continuity of operations.”
Murtha and HAC-D Ranking Member Bill Young (R-Fla.) said their version of the supplemental is not finalized, as they continue to weigh U.S. strategy in the Middle East. Murtha said the subcommittee hasn’t decided whether to add funds for weapon systems including Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] F-22s.
Young said the HAC-D may be able to finish its work on the bill next week and then circulate it. Petraeus is scheduled to return to the Capitol tomorrow for an open hearing on the supplemental of the HAC’s military construction and veterans affairs subcommittee.
Murtha said he wants to add up to $12 billion to the Obama administration’s $75.5 billion request for the supplemental, which would fund military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan until fiscal year 2009 ends Sept. 30 (Defense Daily, April 13).
“We’re looking to add $10 (billion) to $12 (billion), and just we’ll make sure it’s war-related and absolutely essential,” Murtha said, describing the monies as being for “all kinds of things that are worn out by the war.”
He said he believes F-22s aren’t war-related, and is not sure if his panel will agree to fund four of the fighter jets in the supplemental. Gates has recommended buying the final four F-22s in the supplemental and then shutting down the line, a plan that faces strong opposition in Congress from F-22 supporters.
Murtha said Boeing‘s [BA] C-17s, cargo aircraft the Pentagon wants to stop buying, are “certainly war-related,” though he did not say if the HAC-D will add funds for them.
Murtha said he still wants to compel a competitive dual procurement of the Air Force’s aerial-refueling tanker–from contract competitors Boeing and a Northrop Grumman [NOC]-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) team–in the supplemental, despite Gates’ continued opposition.
Gates maintains buying and maintaining two different tankers would be too expensive, but Murtha and other supportive lawmakers said a dual buy is the only way to prevent another contract protest by the losing bidder of a winner-take-all contest.
Northrop Grumman and EADS officials have said they would support a dual procurement. The Associated Press reported yesterday Jim Albaugh, the head of Boeing’s defense unit, said his company would support a split contract if the Pentagon chooses that approach.
“Every commander I talk to says they could be limited by (relying on old) tankers,” Murtha said. “We’re going to solve the tanker problem. It’s just a matter of how we solve it.”
The congressman said he now is eyeing a plan to buy three tankers per month–instead of his previous idea to procure two of the aircraft each month–with the winner of a competition between the two tanker builders making most of the aircraft.
Murtha said it is “complicated” to write such a competitive dual procurement into the supplemental. But he said he is hopeful such a plan can work, noting Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has said he will consider a dual buy.
Murtha may face opposition to adding billions of dollars to the supplemental. John Isaacs, the executive director of the Council for a Livable World and the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said he has proposed an amendment to the supplemental rejecting congressional add-ons.