Another $450 Million For Fighter Engine The Military Doesn't Want?

July 28, 2010 — -- Despite vocal objections from President Obama and the Pentagon, and even a looming veto threat, a House subcommittee Tuesday voted to spend nearly half-a-billion dollars on a backup engine for its next-generation fighter jet.

The appropriations panel approved $450 million in additional funding for General Electric and Rolls Royce to develop the Joint Strike Fighter's alternate engine on an 11-5 vote, despite opposition from the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.).

"I did not want to get my first bill vetoed," Dicks told reporters.

That veto threat is now casting a heavy shadow over congressional plans to pass a $681 billion military spending plan, as White House officials told ABC News Tuesday night there has been no revision to the message Obama sent Congress in May.

"If the final bill presented to the President includes funding or a legislative direction to continue an extra engine program, the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto," the president's message states.

ABC News first reported on the controversial engine program, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates claimed had already cost $3 billion, in May. At issue is the contract for the engine that will power the strike fighter, an all-purpose military jet that is expected to become the backbone of American air supremacy for a generation. The fighter already has an engine - built by Pratt & Whitney and in use as the jet is being tested. That month, Gates tried to increase pressure on Congress to drop the engine program, which he described as a wasteful boondoggle.

"The Bush administration opposed this engine. The Obama administration opposes it. We have recommended for several years now against funding this engine, considering it a waste of money," Gates told reporters. "To argue that we should add another $3 billion [over time] in what we regard as waste … frankly, I don't track the logic."

Some members of Congress, though, have pushed for years to pay General Electric and Rolls-Royce to develop a second one. Having two companies working to build engines for the fighter will create a competitive environment that will drive down costs, they have argued.

"There has been much debate on the issue of the second engine, but it all comes down to this: competition saves money," said Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, and the author of an amendment to add funding for the GE engine. "I truly believe that spending a little money today will save a great deal in the future."