Supplemental Split

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, told a conference crowd this morning he and others in Congress hope to get a split-buy tanker competition going with money in the emergency supplemental bill for fiscal year 2009.

Murtha, who has made news this week calling for a split tanker buy between Boeing and a Northrop Grumman-EADS team, also said he still wants to ensure competition in the controversial program -- namely, by promising that the bidder with the better proposal will be awarded more work than the other.

Funding tankers through the war costs supplemental is OK, Murtha added, because tankers -- unlike, say, F-22A fighters -- directly benefit ongoing war efforts. No F-22 money will be in the supplemental, he said.

Finally, Murtha said Congress is likely to add about $20 billion to the FY-09 supplemental.

For more on a possible split tanker program, see our story from yesterday:

Abercrombie: House Members Approaching Consensus in Favor of Split KC-X Buy

March 11, 2009 -- After years of false starts and delays, a consensus is forming on Capitol Hill that a split purchase is the only feasible option for the embattled KC-135 tanker replacement competition, the chairman of the House Armed Services air land subcommittee said today.

“I've spoken to all the principals involved, at least legislatively speaking in the House and Senate, and it seems that both companies had acted in good faith and put forth a proposal that was in line with what the Air Force was requesting and they both believed that they had fulfilled that,” said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) today during a conference sponsored by Aviation Week. “My view is very simple: We're gonna split the buy. Each of the tankers from each of the consortiums does different things . . . buy them and use them where it's appropriate.”