Senate deal would modify Air Force tanker lease program
Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., announced a proposed agreement for a plan to let the Air Force lease up to 20 Boeing tanker aircraft and to purchase no more than 80 through an incrementally-funded multi-year procurement, according to Senate aides.
The proposal, announced by Warner, Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will be offered as part of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization conference, the senators said Thursday night on the Senate floor.
"This is a much more honest approach that will save taxpayers up to $4 billion in the long run," Warner said.
Warner said the proposal would cost $4.2 billion less than the Air Force's current $21.1 billion plan to lease 100 Boeing tankers, and would be more true to federal acquisition and budget processes.
In addition, the proposal would give total ownership of at least 80 aircraft to the Air Force, allowing them to use the planes for scrap or to sell to other countries at the end of their lifecycle.
The stipulation that 80 aircraft be acquired through an incrementally funded multiyear procurement parallels the spirit of a leasing arrangement in which the Air Force can delay upfront costs until the aircraft are delivered, one Senate aide said.
However, the proposal would prohibit the current Air Force plan to retire 67 of its existing KC-135E tankers in fiscal 2004 and 126 in fiscal 2005. It would allow for the draw down of only 12 planes in anticipation of a new analysis of alternatives to modernizing its aging tanker fleet also included in the proposal.
In addition, the Defense secretary would be required to provide an independent assessment to the congressional defense committees on the condition of the KC-135 fleet to determine the urgency of the need to replace them.
A second independent study would be required to identify alternatives for meeting the long-term requirements of the Air Force's maintenance and training for the Boeing tanker planes.
Under the current Air Force plan, Boeing would be given a sole-source contract for these functions, totaling more than $6 billion, an amount determined in a recent CBO study of the tanker lease proposal to be excessively high.
As a result of the new proposal, the Senate Armed Services Committee will not act on the Air Force's fiscal 2003 reprogramming request, which was approved by three other committees of jurisdiction this summer. Instead, Warner's amendment will authorize approval of the plan to lease 20 aircraft and purchase the remaining planes, pending the approval of all four committees having jurisdiction.
A second Senate aide said the committee is confident it will garner support from the House Armed Services Committee for the new proposal. However, winning support from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees could prove challenging. It remains unclear whether the new proposal could pre-empt efforts by lawmakers who back the Air Force's plan to bypass Warner's committee and approve the deal in the fiscal 2004 wartime supplemental appropriations conference. The 100-aircraft lease plan boasts numerous supporters in the House.
Language proposed by the House is likely to be inserted into the wartime spending package expected to be negotiated in final conference next week. The House version of the bill created a place-holder provision for tanker legislation with an amendment that calls for the Air Force to describe a study of alternatives for replacing its aging fleet of KC-135s.
A similar measure was attempted in the Senate version of the bill, but was removed at the last minute by Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, at the request of McCain, a vocal opponent of the deal.
"With this proposal, we have begun to set a standard," McCain said in a statement. "This is a message that there are those in the Senate who will not tolerate backroom deal-making and policy making done in the dead of night."