Entire Defense Authorization Bill In Jeopardy, White House Says

President Obama may be facing his first showdown with a Democratically controlled Congress over money for the F-22 Raptor in the defense authorization bill.

The President made the threat in a three-page reaction to the House Armed Services Committee version of the authorization bill, according to Defense News. "The administration strongly objects to the provisions in the bill authorizing $369 million in advanced procurement funds for F-22s in fiscal year 2011," a Statement of Administration Policy says.

The document asserts that the 187 F-22s already in service or under construction are "sufficient to meet operational requirements. If the final bill presented to the president contains this provision, the president's senior advisers would recommend a veto."

Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie said last week that a presidential veto of the $680 billion spending bill is extremely unlikely. "Does anybody seriously believe, given that we have troops in the field in two wars and the possibility of other deployments that may come up, that people in this country would put up with a veto?" Abercrombie asked. "it would be overridden in a nanosecond," he said.

The President also objected to funding for continued development of the alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the bill. 90 percent of the Joint Strike Fighters run on the primary engine, and in the HASC committee report, lawmakers said that  "we cannot afford to have an engine glitch that grounds 90 percent of our fleet."

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov