House Votes To End Spending For Wasteful Jet Engine Program

Press Release

The House voted today to approve this amendment to block funding for the F-35 second engine program. After the vote, Congresswoman Pingree said:

"I was glad to see that both Democrats and Republicans could see how wasteful and unnecessary this program was and voted to save taxpayers $3 billion by ending it," said Pingree. "The Bush Administration didn't want this engine, the Obama Administration doesn't want this engine and the Pentagon tells us it's unnecessary. The only reason it keeps getting funded is because it's a giveaway to a powerful defense contractor who hires the lobbyists that keep it alive."

"The current engine is built by world-class workers around the country, including right here in Maine. If a second engine is funded at least 40 percent of it would be built in the UK, eliminating jobs in the United States," Pingree said.

Pingree, along with one other Democratic and two Republican Congressmen, sponsored an amendment to a major spending bill that would end funding for a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The main engine for the plane is built in part at Pratt & Whitney in North Berwick, but General Electric and Rolls Royce have fought to fund a second "alternative" engine for the plane. Pingree says funding the engine for the rest of this year would cost over $400 million and altogether would cost taxpayers nearly $3 billion. The amendment will be voted on today.

Pingree has been fighting to end the funding since coming to Congress. Last year an amendment to a spending bill sponsored by Pingree won wide spread bipartisan support but fell short of passing Congress. This time, Pingree says she's hopeful that the result will be different.

"There are a lot of new Members of Congress who got elected with promises of cutting wasteful spending and I'm hopeful they will be with us on this issue," Pingree said.

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