Panel rejects Obama's biggest Defense cuts
President Obama has threatened to veto any Defense bill that contains unwanted funding for the F-22 fleet.
The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on Thursday defied the Obama administration on several fronts, including the panel's decision to fund a $369 million down payment in the fiscal 2010 Defense spending bill for the purchase of 12 F-22 Raptor fighter jets.
President Obama has threatened to veto any defense bill that contains unwanted funding for the radar-evading fighters, which the administration wants to cap at the 187 aircraft already ordered.
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., speaking after his panel's closed-door markup this morning, said limiting the F-22 fleet to 187 planes would put the nation at "high risk" if the country had to fight a war on two fronts. But he acknowledged that Congress may not have enough votes to sustain a veto over the F-22 funding and may ultimately have to abandon efforts to keep the program alive.
The F-22 down payment for jets to be purchased in fiscal 2011, known as advanced procurement funding, mirrors a provision in the House-passed fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., have been trying this week to strike $1.75 billion for seven F-22s next year in their committee's version of the authorization measure.
The House spending bill, which the full Appropriations Committee will consider on Wednesday, totals $636.3 billion, or $3.8 billion less than the Pentagon's request. Of that, $508 billion is allotted for the base budget, with another $128.3 billion approved to pay for overseas military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Murtha said $128.3 billion may not be adequate to cover the cost of ongoing operations next year and added that he expected a supplemental spending bill to cover unanticipated costs sometime next spring.
The Obama administration intended to include all war-related costs in the regular fiscal 2010 Defense budget for the first time since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.
In addition to the F-22 add-on, Murtha's subcommittee also added $560 million for a second engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which the administration strongly opposes. A Statement of Administration Policy issued this week on the pending Senate Defense authorization bill said funding for the alternate engine would "impede the progress of the overall JSF program" and could draw a veto.
In another break with the administration, the panel approved $674 million for three C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes not requested by the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the 205 C-17s now planned are enough to meet the military's airlift needs. But the Boeing Co. aircraft has a legion of supporters on Capitol Hill who do not want to see the plane's production lines stopped.
Meanwhile, the subcommittee rejected Obama's cancellation of the problem-plagued VH-71 presidential helicopter program, which he deemed unnecessary. The panel included $485 million to make five initial "Increment 1" aircraft operational amid Murtha's concerns that the military had already invested $3.2 billion on the program.
"You can't just cancel programs and not get anything out of them," he said.
The bill also adds $495 million to buy nine more F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets for the Navy. The Pentagon had requested funds for nine Super Hornets and 22 E/A-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, which are based on the same Boeing airframe.
The panel also cut $532 million for two of the 30 F-35s requested by the administration and trimmed $100 million from the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program.