Tanker contract likely to fuel long House markup debate

The House Armed Services Committee expects to battle Wednesday over several amendments during its markup of the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill, including one or more attempts to challenge the Air Force contract award to Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, the European consortium behind Airbus, for a fleet of aerial refueling tankers.

Other amendments, most of which will come from Republicans, will seek to overturn cuts to the Army's Future Combat Systems, missile defense programs and several major weapons systems that the armed services subcommittees approved last week.

Some committee members were preparing language late Tuesday to address the tanker contract, which has drawn angry denunciations from supporters of Boeing Co., which had been widely expected to win the bidding for the $35 billion program. Boeing lost and lodged a formal protest of the award that remains pending with GAO.

Some legislative options include language expected from Armed Services ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., that would prohibit the Pentagon from awarding contracts to foreign companies that receive government subsidies, as EADS does from several European nations.

A draft of the language late Tuesday would not be retroactive to the Air Force's award of the tanker contract to the Northrop Grumman/EADS team, but it could affect the program if GAO forces the service to reopen up the contract, an aide said.

Washington Democratic Reps. Rick Larsen and Adam Smith were drafting a tanker amendment, but Smith said the specifics would be a "game-day decision." One possibility is delaying purchases of the tanker until the Air Force or GAO provides Congress with more information about the subsidies EADS receives, Smith said.

Boeing planned to build the tanker at its plant in Everett, Wash.

Any language specifically aimed at undoing the contract would likely receive stiff opposition from House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who has said he does not want his panel to legislate on the issue while GAO continues to evaluate Boeing's protest.

GAO will not conclude its work until June 19 -- well after the House votes on the authorization measure, which is expected to go to the floor next week.

On the Army's Future Combat Systems, congressional aides said they expect Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., to seek to restore full funding of the Bush administration's $3.6 billion request for the program. Last week, the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee trimmed $200 million from the request.

Akin was unsuccessful in his efforts during last year's committee markup to overturn a much larger cut to the program. Boeing runs the FCS program out of St. Louis, near Akin's district.

Republicans have signaled that they want to protect missile defense programs, including the proposed missile defense site in Europe, from large cuts. The Strategic Forces Subcommittee cut $232 million from the European missile defense project, while the Readiness Subcommittee trimmed another $140 million in military construction funds for the European site.

Republican members have drafted an amendment that would increase fiscal 2009 advanced procurement funding for a second Virginia-class submarine in fiscal 2010 by $422 million.

The Seapower Subcommittee last week approved an amendment from Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., that added $300 million for that purpose. General Dynamics' Electric Boat unit in Courtney's district builds the submarines.

The offset for the Republican submarine amendment would come from the $1.8 billion the Seapower Subcommittee added for an LPD-17 amphibious warfare ship.