White House Threatens Veto of Defense Bill Over GE Engine
F-35 Fighter
Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
Visitors take a closer look at a Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet at the Singapore Airshow 2010 in Singapore on February 2, 2010.
Visitors take a closer look at a Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet at the Singapore Airshow 2010 in Singapore on February 2, 2010. Photographer: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
The Obama administration is threatening to veto the House defense authorization bill that backs an offer by General Electric Co. (GE) and Rolls-Royce Group Plc (RR/) to self-fund the development of a secondary engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The Defense Department last month terminated the second engine program, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates says is unneeded and wasteful spending. Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (UTX) of Hartford, Connecticut, is the primary engine supplier for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)’s F-35 jet.
The U.S. House Armed Services Committee bill would require the secretary of defense to allow continued development and testing of the secondary engine if it is self-funded and would not incur any cost to the federal government.
“If the final bill presented to the president includes funding or a legislative direction to continue an extra engine program, the President’s senior advisers would recommend a veto,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement today.
GE, of Fairfield, Connecticut, and U.K.-based Rolls Royce said that they are willing to self-fund development of the alternative engine for the rest of this year and next year. That would cost more than $100 million, GE Aviation spokesman Rick Kennedy said. The company’s goal is to compete with Hartford- based Pratt & Whitney starting in 2016, Kennedy said.
Destruction Ban
The U.S. House is poised to vote this week on the 2012 bill, which sets funding targets and military policy for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
The bill would prohibit the Defense Department from destroying or discarding engines made by GE for the F-35. The 2012 defense authorization bill also seeks to limit the obligation or expenditure of funds for improving the performance of the primary engine unless there is competition among engine makers, should improvements be needed.
The Obama administration “strongly objects” to the provision that would trigger a competition if performance improvements were required in the Pratt & Whitney engine, the statement said. “This would result in the continued development of an extra engine that adds significant extra costs to the program for something the Administration and the Department of Defense (DoD) have determined is not needed,” the White House said.
Prior to the House debate, no lawmaker submitted an amendment to strike the engine provisions, championed by Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the California Republican who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and senior lawmakers such as Maryland Republican Roscoe Bartlett and New Jersey Democrat Robert Andrews.
To contact the reporter on this story: Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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