Sat, Dec 12, 2009
Conferees Work Out A Deal To Salvage Part Of The VH-71
Program
Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) said Friday House and Senate
conferees working on the defense appropriations bill have agreed to
restore $100 million to continue work on a scaled-down
version of the beleaguered VH-71 program. The helicopter had been
the planned replacement for the aircraft designated "Marine One"
when the President is on board.
Hinchey (pictured, above) said the
compromise was worked out with Senate leaders for the
helicopter in an updated FY2010 defense appropriations bill,
despite a threatened Presidential veto. "At my initiative, the
House defense appropriations bill has funded that compromise and as
a result, it is very much alive," Hinchey had said earlier in the
day in a statement to Reuters. The amount is less than the $485
million he had wanted for the program, but Hinchey said
it would preserve 250 jobs at the Lockheed plant in his district
where the helicopter was being built.
An unnamed Capitol Hill source told the news service that the
President's veto threat could be softening. "It's hard to imagine a
veto," the source said, noting that congressional Democrats plan to
add language to increase the debt ceiling and add a jobs creation
package to the defense bill.
Hinchey and Representative John Murtha (D-PA) had
said scrapping the program now would be a waste of the $4
billion already invested by the taxpayers. Hinchey had tried to
convince lawmakers to continue working on the a full, but
scaled-down version of the program, but that was met with
opposition in the Senate.
VH-71 File Photo
Both the full House and Senate are
expected to vote on the conference report next week. President
Obama did not make good on his threat to veto the 2010 defense
authorization bill which included funding for the F136 alternate
engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
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