WASHINGTON -- Tea Party-backed Republicans joined anti-war Democrats in voting to cancel $450 million for a controversial second military F-35 fighter jet engine in a rare free-for-all debate Wednesday over how to cut federal spending.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the second engine "an unnecessary and extravagant expense," but it has been kept alive by members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who want to preserve jobs in their districts.
The second engine could still be kept alive by the Democratic-controlled Senate. The vote was at least a partial victory for Connecticut lawmakers who support the primary engine built by Hartford-based Pratt and Whitney, and for budget hawks who pointed to the second engine as a poster child of government bloat.
That second engine also is the product of Connecticut-based General Electric, whose headquarters are in Fairfield.
The engine amendment was part of legislation that would cut $61 billion from a $1.2 trillion spending bill to keep the government operating for the rest of this year. The House vote was 238-198.
Other efforts by both Democrats and Republicans to cut billions more from Pentagon spending were defeated.
Democrats blasted the House bill, called H.R. 1, as a reckless meat-ax attack on hundreds of domestic programs. The cuts range across the government, from farm programs to foreign aid, conservation to the courts, public broadcasting to Head Start and the Centers for Disease Control.
Senate Republican leaders said Tuesday that they will follow the House lead. Democrats control the Senate, however, and vowed to oppose the cuts.
The Obama administration threatened a veto, saying it "strongly opposes" the bill, known as H. R. 1, because its cuts "would sharply undermine core government functions and investments key to economic growth and job creation, and would reduce funding for the Department of Defense to a level that would leave the Department without the resources and flexibility needed to meet vital military requirements."