Two key Senate chairmen predicted Wednesday that a move by the House to cut funding for the F-22 stealth fighter jet will be overturned in September, before Congress completes action on the fiscal year 2000 Defense appropriations bill, Bloomberg News reported.
The House Appropriations Committee last week approved a $266 billion Defense spending bill that would cut the $1.8 billion from President Clinton's request for the F-22, and the full House today is likely to pass that measure without changing the F-22 funding.
However, the cut will likely be overturned when Senate and House negotiators meet in September to reconcile their competing versions of the Defense appropriations bill, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., told Bloomberg News in an interview. The Senate has already voted to fully fund the program.
"I think beyond any doubt, it will survive," Warner said. "It is a program that is essential for America's future defense. It's as simple as that."
And, in a separate interview, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, agreed.
"It must be saved," said Stevens, who also chairs the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. "It is the keystone for our defenses in the next century. It's an air superiority plane and without it we'll have to redesign a whole series of other planes."
The House Appropriations panel cut the $1.8 billion the Air Force sought for producing F-22s in FY2000, approving just the $1.2 billion requested to continue research and development on the warplane.
The $62 billion F-22 program is the Pentagon's largest weapons project and promises billions in revenue for Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga.-based Aeronautics sector if production proceeds as planned through 2011.
At his news conference Wednesday, President Clinton vowed to fight to restore funding for the F-22.
"We can fund the F-22," Clinton said. "I think it would be a mistake to abandon the project."
Still, there are hurdles to overcome. While the Senate voted to fully fund the F-22, there is not enough money available to the Defense Appropriations Committee to accomplish that goal.
"It's a very difficult problem," Stevens said. "I don't have the money available right now."
In addition, Warner has long voiced concerns about the F-22's well publicized cost increases, schedule delays and development test glitches.
"We have a program today which has grown from a unit cost of about $68 million a copy to a projected $200 million," Warner said. "That says this program has problems, that's my take."
But Warner said he will be working with Stevens to salvage F- 22 funding.
"I'm confident Sen. Stevens can work this thing out satisfactorily," Warner said. "Where the mark falls, that'll take some negotiations."