Taiwan Redux

While enacting a bill that would call on the president to sell F-16C/D fighter jets to Taiwan "would affect direct spending," a recent Congressional Budget Office analysis "estimates that those effects would be insignificant. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues and would have insignificant effects on spending subject to appropriation." Further, according to CBO:

Under current law, sales of U.S. defense articles and services to foreign governments are carried out under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program -- a direct spending program administered by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). Once the Department of State has approved a sale, DSCA enters into an agreement with the foreign government to procure the necessary items. The foreign government pays the full cost of all items and a fee to cover DSCA's administrative costs.

Taiwan is eligible for sales under the FMS program and has requested new F-16 jets to replace older models they currently own. In September, the Administration decided against selling those F-16s to Taiwan and instead offered to refurbish the existing jets. Under the bill, the President would be required to sell Taiwan the jets it requested. Because Taiwan would pay the full cost of the jets plus a fee to cover DSCA's administrative costs, CBO estimates that enacting bill would have no significant effect on direct spending. CBO also expects that any costs incurred by the Department of State to approve the sale would be less than $500,000, assuming availability of appropriated funds.

On Nov. 17, the House Foreign Relations Committee marked up the bill. Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said in a statement that day that "this is straightforward legislation." Furthermore:

It simply requires that the president carry out the sale of no fewer than 66 F-16C/D multirole fighter aircraft to Taiwan. As Members are aware, under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act the U.S. is obligated to make available defense articles and services necessary for Taiwan's self-defense. In order to meet this requirement, the U.S. must provide Taiwan with equipment necessary to help the island nation defend its own airspace.

While the recent agreement by the U.S. to upgrade Taiwan's existing fleet of F-16s is a step in the right direction, Taiwan also urgently needs new advanced combat aircraft to help meet the growing menace from communist China. Accordingly, it is long past due for the Executive Branch to cease its dithering on this issue and sell Taiwan the new F-16s it has sought since 2006.