The White House has threatened to veto defense authorizations for fiscal year 2012 because of a provision providing support for the alternate engine of the Joint Strike Fighter, which the administration and the Pentagon both consider wasteful and want to end.
The House first pulled funding last winter and, in April, the Defense Department officially canceled the program. However, congressional advocates for the extra engine have hatched plans recently to resurrect the program.
The latest drama concerns a provision the House Armed Services Committee tucked into the defense authorization bill. The measure directs the defense secretary to continue to allow “development and testing†of the second engine if it is self-funded, according to a Bloomberg report.
“If the final bill presented to the president includes funding or a legislative direction to continue an extra engine program, the president’s senior advisers would recommend a veto,†a statement of administration policy on the Office of the Management and Budget website reads.
