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Senate sides with Obama, defunds jet engine
2009-07-23
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to eliminate spending on a jet engine program the defense secretary says is superfluous, moving in step with Obama administration assertions that it is time to stop spending military dollars on programs that are not needed. The voice vote on an amendment to eliminate funds for a backup engine for the F-35 next-generation fighter plane came as the Senate neared completion of a $680 billion bill that authorizes defense programs for the fiscal year starting in October. Just two days ago, the Senate went along with Defense Secretary Robert Gates' campaign to change the way the Pentagon buys weapons by stripping from the bill $1.75 billion to produce more F-22 fighters, the high-tech aircraft that eventually will be supplanted by the F-35 as the military's main attack plane. The White House has said that President Barack Obama would issue what would be the first veto of his presidency if the defense bill contained money for either of those programs. In anticipation of an agreement with Russia later this year on reducing nuclear arsenals and replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December, the Senate agreed that Congress would block spending to implement any new treaty that puts limitations on U.S. missile defense. Senators also demanded, in a voice vote, that the budget to maintain nuclear weapons and modernize the nuclear weapons complex be fully funded in fiscal 2011. Whatever the negotiators eventually decide on, said Sen. Jon Kyl, sponsor of the amendment, "we need to start a process of modernizing our nuclear weapons program and stockpile." The Russians have strongly objected to U.S. proposals to locate missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect Europe from Iranian missile attacks, and have suggested that a nuclear weapons reduction agreement could hinge on the U.S. abandoning those proposals. Separately, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., won approval of a nonbinding amendment stating that it is imperative that the United States have an effective missile defense program and that the Senate would only support an alternative to the Poland-Czech plan that offers the same capabilities of defending both the United States and Europe. The debate over the second F-35 engine has gone on for more than a decade. The Pentagon gave the contract for the engine to United Technologies Corp.'s subsidiary Pratt & Whitney. But lawmakers, some with jobs in their states at stake, have continued to push for development of a backup engine built by General Electric Co. and Rolls Royce. Some $2.5 billion has already been spent on the GE engine. Both the F-22 and the F-35 are being built by the Lockheed Martin Corp. On Tuesday, Gates wrote a letter to Senate leaders saying that "further expenditures on a second engine are unnecessary and will likely impede the progress of the overall F-35 program." Lieberman argued that GE and its supporters were "trying to achieve through legislation what they could not achieve through competition." The Pentagon in the coming decades plans to buy about 2,400 of the single-engine jet that would be used primarily to attack targets on the ground and would replace the F-16 and the Air Force's aging fleet of A-10s. Versions would also be produced for the Navy and Marine Corps as well as the Air Force, and about 600 would be built for foreign allies. The House version of the defense bill passed in June contains more than $300 million for spare parts for F-22s and $600 million for the alternate F-35 engine. The Senate stops F-22 production at 187 planes. Those differences will need to be worked out in negotiations. The defense bill contains $551 billion for military hardware and personnel costs, and $129 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among other features, the bill: _Provides for a 3.4 percent pay raise for all uniformed service personnel starting Jan. 1. _Authorizes an increase of Army troop strength, now at 547,000, by 30,000. _Removes red tape that that has resulted in thousands of ballots filled out by military personnel stationed overseas being lost or uncounted. _Clarifies that there is no need to read Miranda rights -- rights to remain silent and have access to a lawyer -- to people detained in a war situation and being interrogated by military or intelligence agency officers. _States a sense of the Senate that detained war combatants and terrorist suspects be tried by military commission courts. It also states that classified documents in military commission trials should be handled through standards set by the civilian Classified Information Procedures Act. The bill was also the vehicle for two major non-defense debates. The Senate approved an amendment expanding federal hate crimes law to cover gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. It defeated an amendment that would have allowed a person with a concealed weapons permit in one state to carry a concealed weapon in states with similar laws. ___ The defense bill is S. 1390. ___ On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
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