Tanker lease, "Buy American" provisions collide in defense bill talks
Two of the most hotly contested defense proposals in Congress collided this week, as House and Senate conferees met to discuss a Senate proposal on Air Force refueling tankers in tandem with the possibility of reintroducing tougher limitations on foreign content in U.S. weapons systems in the fiscal 2004 defense authorization conference, congressional aides said.
House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., was expected to raise the possibility of reverting to a Sept. 10 version of a compromise agreement on "Buy American" legislation negotiated between Hunter and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., in talks Thursday.
Top Bush administration officials initially snubbed the compromise, intended to dilute language in the House version of the bill. They said it would harm U.S. defense companies and isolate the United States from its closest allies.
Since Sept. 10, the language has undergone generations of changes, with each version further weakening Hunter's original language. On Monday, the Office of Management and Budget approved a final version that removed many of the teeth from the original House legislation.
However, House aides said Hunter is not satisfied with the OMB proposal, and he now wants the original compromise language put back on the table.
In return, Hunter is expected to support a proposal offered last week by Warner, McCain and Senate Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich. It would modify a $21 billion Air Force plan to lease 100 Boeing 767 tanker aircraft.
The Senate proposal stipulates that the Air Force may lease up to 20 of the planes and purchase no more than 80 tankers through an incrementally funded, multiyear procurement. The Air Force is considering the proposal, but officials have said they might need to cut some new procurement programs to pay for the plan in the near term.
Hunter met late Thursday afternoon with McCain, a senior Senate Armed Services Committee member, and Warner, House aides said. It is unclear whether the senators will support the original Sept. 10 language in the conference, aides said.
An outspoken advocate of free trade, McCain has adamantly opposed Hunter's legislation.
Warner has shown less heated opposition to the language. But in September, he boldly called on the State Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and OMB to clarify their position on the Sept. 10 compromise.
In letters to the three agencies, Warner asked whether the administration's position on the language had changed since a threat by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in July to recommend the president veto the bill if it includes Hunter's industrial base proposals.
Warner's office would not comment on details of the conference. An aide said Warner is reviewing the OMB language and has yet to receive any formal response from the State Department or USTR to his September inquiries.
In the meantime, the State Department and other key agencies are not expected to recommend a presidential veto of the bill if it includes the final OMB compromise proposal, although a number of administration officials reportedly continue to oppose aspects of the final draft.
Given earlier opposition to the original Hunter-Wolfowitz language, it is unlikely the administration would support a conference resolution that incorporates the Sept. 10 version of the compromise.
Regardless of Hunter's position on the Senate's tanker lease proposal, support from House Speaker Hastert and, subsequently, House appropriators will be critical to its passage, aides said.