House lawmakers will include $2.2 billion in the Pentagon’s war spending request to buy additional Boeing Co. C-17 transports, according to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis.
The money would buy up to eight additional planes, Obey said. The committee, which has been a strong supporter of buying more C-17s, is scheduled to review the measure Friday.
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Boeing, to strengthen its Washington operations, this year hired as its top lobbyist and vice president for government operations David H. Morrison, Obey’s former adviser on defense and staff director for the House defense appropriations subcommittee under its current chairman, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., whose connections to lobbyists for defense contractors has helped spur a federal investigation.
If approved by the full House and Senate, the added money would be a victory for Chicago-based Boeing, which has spent $16.2 million on lobbying over the last 12 months, according to federal lobbying filings. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended April 6 that the program be terminated once Boeing delivers the last of 205 C-17s in late 2010.
Boeing, the second-largest defense contractor, has said its plant in Long Beach, Calif., will shut down in 2011 without more orders.
Congress in the fiscal 2008 war spending bill approved money for 15 additional C-17 transport aircraft. Boeing received a $2.95 billion contract Feb. 6 for these aircraft.
Congress also added money for 10 transports in the fiscal 2007 war spending bill. The funding was approved.
Boeing C-17s also are used by the U.K., Canadian and Australian militaries to transport troops and equipment and have been ordered in the past year by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The C-17 can fly intercontinental distances and land on short runways and on dirt or sand.
With the addition of emergency funding to deal with swine flu, the measure will total $94.2 billion, Obey said.
