Fighter jet battle looms

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By Shaun Waterman THE WASHINGTON TIMES

House and Senate lawmakers are going eyeball to eyeball with the Obama administration over a new defense spending bill, risking a veto recommendation from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates as they fight to keep alive two big-ticket procurement programs he wants to kill.

Two programs in the House version of the fiscal year 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill attracted a veto threat last week from Mr. Gates: the new presidential helicopter; and the alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF.

The $2.5 billion alternate engine, being produced at several factories across the United States by Evendale, Ohio-based GE Aviation and Britain-based Rolls Royce, "is unnecessary, and could disrupt the overall JSF program," Mr. Gates wrote.

In his letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, and ranking Republican C.W. Bill Young of Florida, Mr. Gates wrote: "If the final bill presented to the President would seriously disrupt the JSF program, I would recommend that he veto the bill."

One serious disruption Mr. Gates could be referring to is the fact that the House bill pays for the alternate engine, designated F-136, by cutting funds allocated to the production of the plane itself, reducing the number the military can afford.

Vetoing a defense appropriations bill is considered a "nuclear option" by most observers, because without it, the administration would lack legal authority to spend money to sustain the nation's military. This year's bill would be even more controversial to stymie because, for the first time since 2001, it provides cash for troops fighting overseas who were previously funded by special supplemental appropriations.

The last president to veto a defense appropriations bill was Jimmy Carter in 1978.

President Obama successfully employed a veto threat earlier this year to get House lawmakers to strip out additional F-22 fighters they ordered the Pentagon to buy in an earlier version of the bill.

But, despite Mr. Gates' warnings, the version of the fiscal year 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill eventually passed by the House provided $485 million for the VH-71 presidential helicopter and $560 million for the F-136, funding the alternate engine's development by cutting into the $6 billion budget for the production of the JSF aircraft itself.

The Senate-passed version didn't include money for the helicopter or the additional engine, although Senate appropriators said they would be open to adding funds for the F-136 in the final bill, which must now be hashed out in a House-Senate conference.