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Congress to hold hearing on F-22 parts plans

The Pentagon’s plan to spend $50 million to buy parts for four more F-22s should be enough to keep the stealth fighter program going until March, a Defense Department official said Nov. 13.

But the chairman of the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee said that’s not good enough.

Congress approved spending $140 million on parts for 20 F-22s, and that’s what the Pentagon must do, said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii.

“I keep looking in my copy of the Constitution for the clause that says the Pentagon can do what it damn well pleases, and I can’t find it,” Abercrombie said Nov. 14. “They have to do what Congress says.”

In September, lawmakers set aside $140 million to keep the F-22 program alive long enough for President-elect Barack Obama and his defense secretary to decide whether to keep it going or end it.

“Our intent was very, very clear,” Abercrombie said. “We put sufficient funds in the budget to preserve the F-22 production line.”

“I assume this is an attempt to throw sand in the gears,” he said of the Pentagon’s $50 million, four-jet plan.

Abercrombie said he has scheduled a Nov. 19 hearing on the matter.

In an acquisition decision memorandum released Nov. 12, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, John Young, instructed the Air Force to “take steps to spend up to $50 million in advanced procurement associated with four F-22 aircraft.”

The memorandum came after 10 House and Senate members demanded in two separate letters that the Pentagon spend the $140 million budgeted to preserve the F-22 program. Lawmakers were frustrated because more than a month had passed and the Pentagon had spent none of the money.

On Nov. 3, six senators led by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., wrote, “The intent of Congress … is that the entire $140 million be immediately available and obligated … in order to preserve the F-22 industrial base.” F-22s are assembled in Marietta, Ga., by Lockheed Martin.

Earlier, four House Armed Services Committee members, including Abercrombie, wrote, “The obligation of $140 million for advance procurement of 20 F-22A aircraft is a prudent and necessary action to sustain F-22A production activities.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has not supported buying more than the 183 F-22s already purchased. He pointed out to Congress last year that F-22s have played no role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lawmakers’ reactions to Young’s $50 million spending plan were generally negative.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., one of those who signed the Senate letter, warned that spending $50 million on parts for four F-22s is not enough to keep the production line open long enough for the next administration to decide whether to continue buying Raptors.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he is “deeply disappointed” by the Pentagon’s decision.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said it is not yet clear that the F-22 will survive under the Pentagon plan.

Many in Congress also favor the F-22 program, which creates an estimated 40,000 jobs in 44 states.

In written comments, Young said that Gates will include the rest of the funding for the four planes — estimated to be about $590 million — in an emergency war-funding bill that is expected to be sent to Congress in February.