Misplaced Priorities: 23 Presidential Helicopters More Important Than Ship Repair?

Statement

Misplaced Priorities: 23 Presidential Helicopters More Important Than Ship Repair?

Yesterday I offered an amendment to the annual defense spending bill to increase funding for ship repair. My amendment would remove $200 million in wasteful spending for research and development of the Presidential helicopter program - funding that even the President himself has targeted as wasteful. The amendment would instead direct the funding towards the Navy's underfunded ship repair account. The Navy has identified ship repair funds as its number two priority on a list of requests that did not get fully funded in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.

My amendment was bipartisan: Congressman Solomon Ortiz (TX), Congressman Glenn Nye (VA), and Congressman Susan Davis (CA), and Congressman Pete Sessions (TX) supported it. Yet, the amendment was rejected yesterday by the House Rules Committee. The VH-71 Presidential Helicopter program is intended to provide 23 new presidential helicopters to replace the current fleet of 19. Even the Administration said in its Statement of Policy on the annual defense bill, that, "If the final bill were to include funds that continue the existing VH-71 program, or would prejudge the plan to re-compete the Presidential helicopter program, the President's senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill." At a time when our Navy is woefully underfunded in shipbuilding and ship repair funds to reach out 313-ship goal, where are Congress' priorities?

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