Senate vote to cut F-22 funding a victory for Obama, Gates

Support for the amendment, which was approved 58-40, was seen as a test of the administration's ability to shift spending priorities in the massive Pentagon budget. President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any defense spending measure that included additional money for the F-22. Last month, the House of Representatives approved a version of the bill that included $369 million as a down payment on 12 additional F-22s. The two chambers will have to reconcile those differences.

In the Senate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, in an unusual alliance with the Obama administration, faced off against fellow Republican and Senate Armed Services Committee colleague Saxby Chambliss of Georgia in the fight to remove a provision in the $679.8 billion defense authorization bill that called for spending $1.75 billion to build seven more F-22s.

Both of Alaska's senators, Democrat Mark Begich and Republican Lisa Murkowski, voted for continued F-22 production. Two squadrons of F-22s have been based at Elmendorf Air Force Base for more than a year and already tens of millions of dollars have been spent on fixing up the site for them, from aprons to hangars to training facilities. Basing the jets in Anchorage to replace the aging F-15 fleet was a pet project of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates also opposed the measure and wanted instead to cap production of the F-22 at 187 and to replace the planes, parts of which are manufactured in Georgia, with the F-35, which has parts produced in Texas. Lockheed Martin builds both planes.

Tuesday's vote was seen as a big victory for Gates, who made trimming the F-22 program the cornerstone of reshaping the nation's defense priorities.

"The fact that the F-22 program is no longer needed beyond where it stands today, that it is no longer wanted by the most senior civilian and uniformed officials in the Pentagon -- exercising their best professional judgment -- and that it is simply no longer affordable cannot be disputed," McCain said Tuesday on the Senate floor. "However, in the face of those facts, the full weight of all those interests that have -- for a period of over 20 years -- become invested in the survival of the program has been brought to bear on the decision-making process on this body today. That is the military- industrial-congressional complex at work."

Chambliss criticized Obama's veto threat and said the Pentagon's decision was driven by budgetary pressures, put the nation at risk from future military threats and would result in huge job losses.

"I've never seen the White House lobby like they've lobbied on this issue," Chambliss said Tuesday during the floor debate. "And for a White House that was not supposed to be a lobbying White House, it has been unparalleled in my now going on 15 years as a member of the United States Congress."