Money Matters: No More Cash for Clunkers -- End F-22 Raptor Production - 6/24/09

Money Matters:
No More Cash for Clunkers -- End F-22 Raptor Production
6/24/09

^I. What's in the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Authorization Act?
^II. No More Cash for Clunkers: End F-22 Production
^III. War Supplemental Heads to President's Desk
^IV. House Health Care Proposal Released, Senate Begins Marking Up
^V. New Financial Regulatory Plan Released

I. What's in the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Authorization Act?

On June 17th the House Armed Services Committee approved the FY2010 Defense Authorization Act, which proposes spending levels for the Department of Defense's budget and requires progress reports on withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of December 2011. The authorization is for a total of $680.4 billion-$348 million more than outlined in President Obama's budget request. This authorization indicates that the Armed Services Committee is reluctant to support the administration's proposed budget cuts. Most notably, in an amendment adopted at 2:30 a.m. by a 31-30 vote, the Committee added $369 million to the authorization bill to procure twelve more F-22 Raptors-a weapons program that President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have proposed ending. In order to pay for these twelve unneeded aircraft, the authorization proposes shifting $369 million that was set aside for nuclear clean-up in the president's budget proposal.

The House Defense Authorization moves to the House floor today, where several significant amendments are expected. An amendment proposed by Rep. Jim McGovern (MA) would require that Congress establish a detailed exit strategy from Afghanistan. Another promising amendment proposed by Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) would ban permanent bases in Iraq. An amendment proposed by Rep. Barney Frank (MA) would have shifted the funding for F-22 production back to nuclear clean-up, but unfortunately the amendment was rejected by the House Rules Committee last night. The Senate Armed Services Committee begins to mark up their FY2010 Defense Authorization today and FCNL is lobbying the Committee not to add money for F-22 production.

II. No More Cash for Clunkers -- End F-22 Raptor Production

The F-22 Raptor has never been flown in Iraq or Afghanistan and President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the nation's top military leaders agree that the U.S. military does not need the F-22. The Senate Armed Services Committee begins marking up the Senate's Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Authorization today, and it is expected to include an amendment adding funding for F-22 production. Write your senators now, and urge them to oppose funding for F-22s in the Senate's Defense Authorization Bill.

See a recent letter FCNL and coalition partners sent to Congress on discontinuing the F-22

Learn more about the F-22 from the Center for Arms Control

III. War Supplemental Heads to President's Desk

Last week, Congress approved a $105.9 billion emergency war supplemental spending bill (HR 2346) for Fiscal Year 2009. The president is expected to sign the bill by the end of this week. The bill includes $79.9 billion for the Department of Defense ($4.4 billion more than the administration requested), $10.4 billion for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and $7.7 billion for responses to Pandemic Flu. In total, the war supplemental is about $7 billion more than the president's request. The war supplemental passed the House by a vote of 226-202. See how your representative voted.

Read the Center for Arm's Control's analysis of the war supplemental

IV. House Health Care Proposal Released, Senate Begins Marking Up

The three House committees working together on health care reform legislation-Education and Labor, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce-released their draft proposal for health care reform last Friday. The proposal incorporates many of the principles FCNL sent to the House committees earlier this month. The House proposal includes a strong public health insurance option, caps on out-of-pocket expenses, regulation of the private insurance market, national standards for comprehensive health care coverage, and an extension of Medicaid eligibility to individuals up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line (it currently ends at 100 percent). We are concerned about some of the implementation details surrounding the public plan, and want to ensure that everyone will have affordable access to health care, including those whose incomes are just above Medicaid eligibility. We will be sending additional comments to the House Committees this week.

On the Senate side, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has been working intensely to mark up its draft proposal. The HELP Committee's proposal would also include a strong public insurance option, provide Medicaid to everyone below 150 percent of federal poverty line, and provide subsidies to purchase health insurance to everyone up to 500 percent of the federal poverty line. Senator Chris Dodd (CT), acting chairman of the HELP Committee, has indicated that including a strong public health insurance option is essential to lowering health care costs. The Senate Finance Committee, which shares jurisdiction over health care programs with the HELP committee, is more reluctant to endorse a public health insurance option. Chairman Baucus (MT) has proposed compromising on health care "co-ops" that allow individuals and employers to pool risk and bargain with private insurance companies. But co-ops are already permissible under current law. They are in widespread use, and have not been successful in reducing consumer health care costs. FCNL proposes that a federally administrated public insurance option is necessary to make the health insurance market more competitive and accountable to health care consumers.

See more on FCNL's recent work on health care at www.fcnl.org/healthcare

V. New Financial Regulatory Plan Released

President Obama and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner introduced a new plan for financial regulatory reform last Wednesday. Geithner proposes that the plan will help avoid future market downturns through closer regulation of financial firms, supervision of financial markets, consumer protections against financial abuse, increasing the government's toolkit to respond to financial crises, and strengthening international regulatory standards. The House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee have begun discussing how to implement this plan, raising some concerns that the Federal Reserve would not be able to enforce the proposal adequately.