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Senate bows to veto threats on defense budget

A Senate subcommittee backed away Wednesday from a direct confrontation with the White House over the defense budget.

The $636.3 billion 2010 Pentagon funding bill approved by the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee does as the Obama administration asked by killing further production of the F-22 fighter, providing no funding for an alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, terminating a combat search-and-rescue helicopter program, and canceling the purchase of a new presidential helicopter fleet.

The bill does not do everything the Defense Department and White House wanted, but those four decisions respond to specific veto threats issued by President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the White House Office of Management and Budget.

“While we are not in complete agreement with the judgment of administration officials, we have generally concurred with the recommendations of our current leaders,” said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman as well as its defense subcommittee.

The Pentagon isn’t always right, Inouye said. “The Defense Department has been wrong on several occasions in recommending program terminations,” he said, providing three examples:

* Defense officials wanted to terminate the F-117 Stealth fighter after building just one squadron of aircraft, a decision that Congress did not follow.

“Congress continued to add funding for the program until two squadrons had been completely filled out,” he said, noting that without the extra fighters, the military “would have been woefully short of stealth aircraft in conducting operations in Desert Storm and Bosnia.”

* The Marine Corps’ V-22 Osprey has been on the chopping block several times but today is considered one of the Corps’ “greatest assets,” Inouye said.

* Before the first Gulf War, the Defense Department wanted to eliminate the U.S. Central Command, Inouye said. “The view at the time was that we probably would not need to focus much attention on Southwest Asia.”

Inouye’s statements provide ammunition for senators who may try later to get the F-22 and other programs restored.

The full appropriations committee will take up the bill on Thursday, with the measure coming to the Senate floor for debate and amendment as early as next week.

While avoiding a direct veto threat, the bill still includes provisions that are not to the administration’s liking. A prime example is the addition of 10 C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft that were sought by some senators in order to keep the C-17 production line alive through the end of 2010.

Another trouble spot comes with pet projects. Inouye said the bill cuts earmarks — funds set aside at the request of senators for specific projects — by about 10 percent, or 200 projects, worth about $300 million.

But the Pentagon generally disapproves of any earmarks because the money goes to projects it didn’t request and often doesn’t want. A list of earmarks was not available.