Lawmakers Catfight Over District Jobs, Price Seems To Have
Quadrupled
Lockheed Martin, legendary for cost overruns*, may have set a
new record, and the bill isn't even out of the Senate yet.
According to multiple news reports, the $1.7 billion VHXX
helicopter contract is now a $6.1 billion project. The bill
authorizing the procurement of the new presidential helicopter is
stalled by the parliamentary tactics of Senator Chris Dodd,
D-Connecticut, who is upset that home-state Sikorsky did not
receive the contract. This prompted a counterattack by New York
senators, who are hoping to claim credit for assembly jobs that
will be created at Bell, a Lockheed Martin partner in the contract,
in depressed upstate Oswego.