(October 30) President Obama signed a $680 billion defense authorization bill this week—the largest such bill ever—with a declaration that it “eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process…reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops, and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.” Really? The final bill did shed $1.7 billion for F-22 fighter jets, declined to fund some expensive projects like the VH-71 presidential helicopter and included some worthwhile contracting reforms. However, it slipped past the Obama administration’s softball veto threat to add $560 million for the Joint Strike Fighter’s alternate engine. It also packed on 687 earmarks worth $4 billion.

Though defense authorization bills set the course for defense spending rather than actually signing the check, authorization earmarks are still significant because Congressional additions to the defense appropriation bills benefit from a precedent. For example, most of the big-ticket additions to last year's FY 2009 defense approps bill, such as $830 million for the Navy’s LPD-17 ship and $150 million for the Air Force’s AEHF satellite program, started off as earmarks in that year’s authorization bill. Authorization conferees generally dispose of earmarks they don’t think will make it through the appropriations process.

The FY 2010 authorization bill’s earmark totals are up in number but down in value from last year, continuing this year's trend of including more lower-priced earmarks in spending bills. The House got 404 earmarks worth $1.75 billion, roughly 20 percent less than its original mark of the bill. Conferees dumped expensive earmarks such as a $30 million “millennia military vehicle” from Bill Shuster (R-PA), but kept plenty of whoppers like the $105 million sponsored by Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL) for C-40C Aircraft at Scott Air Force Base. 

The Senate emerged with 283 earmarks worth $2.3 billion. That number includes the “no member request” earmarks deliniated in the original Senate bill, such as $512 million for extra F-18 fighter planes,” $350 million for a “military pay raise” and $172 million for classified programs. Many earmarks were slashed, such as an unrequested earmark for additional MRAPs trimmed from $1.2 billion to $600 million. Some of the larger lawmaker-sponsored earmarks inlcude $25 million for “short range ballistic missile defense” from Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Roger Wicker (R-AL) and $25 million for the Pearl Harbor naval station by Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI).

So while Obama can chalk up some points, the game essentially remains the same. “Changing the culture in Washington will take time and sustained effort,” admitted the President. Hopefully that effort won't require an earmark.

(July 10) The Senate has posted the report on its markup of the defense authorization bill, disclosing 426 earmarks worth $9 billion. This seemly radical difference from the 502 earmarks worth $2.26 billion in the House version results from the Senate’s decision to include $4.3 billion for large committee additions as “no member request” earmarks. These additions include $1.75 billion for seven F-22 fighter jets, $1.2 billion for additional Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, and $560 million for F-18 aircraft. Individual members did some heavy lifting as well: Evan Bayh (D-IN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) added $438 million for an alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, a program constructed by Rolls Royce/General Electric in their states that has been kept aloft by Congress for years. Other additions include $20 million for a “national shipbuilding research program” in the shipbuilding-intensive states of sponsors Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) and $40 million from Chris Dodd (D-CT) for a space program developed by Goodrich Electro-Optical Systems in Danbury, Ct.

(June 26) The Senate Armed Services Committee today released details about its closed-door markup of the FY 2010 defense authorization bill, which redirected billions in defense and nuclear weapons funding while keeping the total just under the President’s $680 billion request. But many substantive changes were overshadowed by the addition of $1.75 billion for seven more F-22 fighter jets despite the release just two days earlier of a veto threat from President Obama.  

A Statement of Administration Policy released Wednesday stated Obama’s displeasure with the House Armed Services Committee's insertion of a $369 million down payment on 12 F-22s to be purchased in 2011. The SAP warned the president would veto the bill if Congress included any additional funding for the F-22 or the alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter—the first veto threat of Obama’s presidency. Yet SASC piled on money for both programs, including $439 million for the alternate engine, setting up a potential standoff with the White House.

Committee leaders Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) declared that their bill  “reflects, to a great extent, the decisions of the Secretary of Defense and the President” to cut back wasteful weapons programs. This means accepting cancellation of vehicles for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), C-17 cargo plane and missile defense white elephants such as the Multiple Kill Vehicle and Airborne Laser.

However, it also means “reallocating” hundreds of millions in FCS dollars to development for new Army ground combat vehicles and upgrade Paladin howitzers (the Paladin is built at the same Oklahoma facility as the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon, one of the terminated FCS ground vehicle programs. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) was one of the first lawmakers to publicly blast Defense Secretary Gates’ budget cuts). The committee also threw in $1.2 billion for MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles; $560 million for 18 F-18 fighter aircraft, double the number requested; and $179 million for a computer networking system on the Army’s unfunded “wish list.”

Meanwhile, the full House passed its version of the bill yesterday, after the Rules committee shut out an amendment by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to strip funding for the F-22. Amendments to add back missile defense funds were voted down.

(June 19) The House Armed Services Committee fired up the coffeemaker Wednesday night and finished marking up the 2010 defense authorization bill in the morning’s wee hours. Authorization legislation is important because it provides a road map that Congressional appropriators will largely follow when they hammer out defense department funding later this summer. The bill provides reasons to both cry and celebrate. Some highlights: 

The committee added $369 million for advance procurement of 12 F-22 Raptor fighter jets in 2011. The F-22 is one of the most fiercely protected weapons in Congress, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ announcement last month that he would end the program at 187 planes set off a paroxysm of defense industry lobbying and lawmaker hand-wringing. Never mind that the Air Force itself has said it has plenty of the expensive, increasingly irrelevant planes. Since the Senate clipped $140 million from the wartime supplemental bill intended for shutdown costs, it’s unlikely anyone in the Senate Armed Services Committee will put a stop to this when they mark up the bill next week.

Happily, the House refrained from adding money for more C-17 Globemaster cargo planes. This program is also the beneficiary of much Congressional love, and several lawmakers vowed to fight Gates’ decision to cap the program at 205 planes (though the supplemental contains $2.2 billion for eight extra aircraft). The committee also endorsed termination of the ground vehicle portion of the Army’s Future Combat Systems program, maintaining the shutdown funds requested in the budget. Another long-running fight revolves around whether to buy an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter plane: The Committee added $603 million for the engine, which Gates did not ask for.

The committee thankfully did not contest Gates’ decision to end the seriously troubled Transformational Satellite Communications program (TSAT). In fact, it appears to have reduced defense-related space spending across the board, not a bad thing given the endemic cost and schedule overruns of military space programs. The bill also requires DOD to consult with its partners about restructuring the troubled National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (see this new GAO report on the program’s challenges).

Finally, the Committee can be commended for staving off amendments that would add money to the Missile Defense Agency budget. Gates’ budget was $1.2 billion lower than FY 2009, but his cuts targeted only the most rotten of the low-hanging fruit, such as the Kinetic Energy Interceptor—a program HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairwoman Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) called “the definition of a sinkhole.”  Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH) introduced an amendment to add $120 million for increasing the number of ground-based interceptors on the West Coast from 30 to 44, arguing that the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles is growing. The majority opposed the amendment based on testimony by Pentagon experts that 30 interceptors were sufficient protection against an attack from a rogue state such as North Korea. The Committee passed a substitute amendment introduced by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) affirming the importance of SM3 Block 2A cruiser-based interceptors.

The bill is scheduled to go to the full House next Thursday, and the Senate Armed Services Committee is set to mark up its version next week as well.