Fri, Jun 26, 2009
Entire Defense Authorization Bill In Jeopardy, White House
Says
President Obama may be
facing his first showdown with a Democratically controlled Congress
over money for the F-22 Raptor in the defense authorization
bill.
The President made the threat in a three-page reaction to the
House Armed Services Committee version of the authorization bill,
according to Defense News. "The administration strongly objects to
the provisions in the bill authorizing $369 million in advanced
procurement funds for F-22s in fiscal year 2011," a Statement of
Administration Policy says.
The document asserts that the 187 F-22s already in service or
under construction are "sufficient to meet operational
requirements. If the final bill presented to the president contains
this provision, the president's senior advisers would recommend a
veto."
Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie said last week that a
presidential veto of the $680 billion spending bill is extremely
unlikely. "Does anybody seriously believe, given that we have
troops in the field in two wars and the possibility of other
deployments that may come up, that people in this country would put
up with a veto?" Abercrombie asked. "it would be overridden in a
nanosecond," he said.
The President also objected to funding for continued development
of the alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the
bill. 90 percent of the Joint Strike Fighters run on the primary
engine, and in the HASC committee report, lawmakers said that
"we cannot afford to have an engine glitch that grounds 90 percent
of our fleet."
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