Engine Block

A Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee is expected to spearhead another effort to kill the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program in the next few weeks.

In its mark-up of the fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill, the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee included a provision that would prohibit the Defense Department from funding “performance improvements” to the F-35 aircraft's engine system unless it also funds a second propulsion system, an attempt to keep the second engine alive. Subcommittee Chairman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has been a prominent supporter of the second engine, but is receiving vocal opposition from Rep. Thomas Rooney (R-FL), a member of the subcommittee.

“I am deeply disappointed to see that the defense authorization bill, which should be focused on funding our troops, is being used in a backdoor effort to restart the wasteful extra engine program,” Rooney said in an April 4 statement. “The House of Representatives has sent a loud and clear message that we’re not going to continue to earmark funds for this wasteful project.”

Rooney spokesman Michael Mahaffey said this morning that Rooney is likely to offer some type of amendment -- either in front of the full House Armed Services Committee next Wednesday or later, on the floor of the House -- to rid the bill of the second engine directive.

“We could strike it, or we could add something onto [the bill] to subvert that language,” he said. “We're working on that now.”

The marked-up version of the FY-12 bill was accepted unanimously by the subcommittee Wednesday afternoon, without amendment.