Appropriator wants to use war supplemental to pay for new tanker fleet
Congress already has approved $66 billion in emergency spending this year.
House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., said Thursday he plans to use the upcoming fiscal 2009 war supplemental spending bill to pay for rebidding the contract for a new fleet of Air Force refueling tankers, plus the aircraft development costs.
Murtha did not disclose exactly how much money he would set aside for the tankers in the supplemental, but he said the money needed to develop the planes would total several billion dollars.
His proposal would put him at odds with lawmakers from both parties who criticized the Bush administration for trying to leverage emergency war-related spending bills to pay for procurement normally covered by routine appropriations.
The new tankers would not be ready for several more years, but Murtha argued Thursday they are crucial to continuing military operations. "There is nothing more related to the war than tankers," Murtha told reporters at the National Press Club. "You can't operate in Iraq and Afghanistan without tankers."
Murtha suggested he wants to use the supplemental because it is the most immediate defense spending vehicle moving through Congress this year. "We need tankers as quick as we can get them," he said, adding that the military needs the war funds by May.
Later this month, President Obama is expected to submit a detailed $75.5 billion supplemental for the remainder of this fiscal year. Congress already has approved $66 billion in emergency spending this year. Murtha has indicated he wants to increase the next supplemental to about $87 billion to cover items the administration is not expected to include in its forthcoming request.
When it passed the regular fiscal 2009 defense spending bill last year, Congress cut all but $38 million for the tanker program after the Government Accountability Office upheld a contract protest filed by Boeing Co., the losing bidder. Northrop Grumman Corp. and the European firm EADS had won the $35 billion contract, but GAO faulted the selection process. The Pentagon hopes to award a new contract early next year.
Meanwhile, Murtha on Thursday reiterated his support for splitting the tanker contract between Boeing and the Northrop Grumman team instead of picking only a single supplier. The goal, he said, would be to replace the aging fleet of tankers faster than now planned. Under his approach, the firm with the best proposal would be tapped to build more of the planes. "We think we have something we can sell to the Congress," Murtha said.
On Wednesday, House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee Chairman Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, endorsed the idea of a split buy for the tankers. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates and dozens of lawmakers have opposed the idea. "I think the idea of a split buy is an absolutely terrible idea and a very bad mistake for the U.S. taxpayer," Gates told the House Armed Services Committee in January.
In another significant development, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Obama's primary military adviser, told the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy organization Wednesday night that the strains of the recession oblige the military to join in the administration's economizing. Mullen did not specify what programs were on the chopping block but did rule out cutting military personnel or the money needed to continue operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This leaves military procurement -- including weapons fiercely protected by lawmakers from areas where they are manufactured -- research and development and operations and maintenance accounts.
With the nation's top military officer now aboard for cutting Obama's defense budget, he and Gates will soon be in a series of fights with lawmakers on what to cut and why.