House-Senate conferees quash effort to delay base closures
Conference committee members also reach an 11th hour deal on language preventing the Air Force from leasing Boeing refueling tankers.
Conferees on the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill neared completion Thursday of the conference report on the measure after removing House language that would have postponed by two years a new round of military base closures, sources said.
The House provision to postpone the planned 2005 round of base closings prompted a presidential veto threat and is opposed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va.
Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appealed to Warner and Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich, to back the House provision and allow "the necessary time to adequately define and plan domestic basing requirements," according to a joint statement issued late Wednesday.
In June, Lott, Snowe and Feinstein co-sponsored an amendment to the Senate version that would have delayed the upcoming round for two years. The amendment was defeated, 49-47.
Thursday night, conferees also made an 11th-hour deal on language that would prevent the Air Force from leasing Boeing KC-767 refueling tankers.
Congressional sources said House language calling for the Air Force to renegotiate by March 1 a contentious $23.5 billion contract with Boeing for the tankers had been removed, and a compromise had been reached to give the Air Force up to 10 years to buy as many as 100 of the planes through a multi-year procurement.
Specifically, the Air Force would have to fully and openly complete a new tanker contract through the Pentagon's normal acquisition process, a move that overrides language included in the fiscal 2002 Defense appropriations bill sanctioning a sole-source award to Boeing for the KC-767. The compromise also prohibits the use of incremental funding and would require the Air Force to develop new operational requirements for the tankers.
In addition, the Air Force would be required to review options for a tanker maintenance contract, including cost, benefits and alternatives to using contract personnel. The Air Force had previously proposed awarding more than $5 billion to Boeing for the tanker maintenance contract.
The final conference agreement also retained language included by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a staunch opponent of the Air Force's tanker acquisition plan, from retiring any of its legacy KC-135 tankers in 2005.