Lawmaker to block tanker funding

Published 1:14 pm Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Boeing Co. could get a little help from its friends in Congress as the company tries to overturn its controversial loss of a $35 billion tanker contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., said on Thursday that he’ll halt appropriations for the Northrop and EADS tanker if auditors with the Government Accountability Office determine this summer that the contract should be rebid, according to Reuters.

Murtha serves as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense – the same committee on which Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., sits in the number three spot in terms of ranking. Dicks told Reuters in an interview that he wants a congressional review regardless of what the GAO rules.

“The more I look into this, the more I’m convinced this is a flawed decision,” Dicks said. “Congress has the ultimate authority.”

“GAO will be very important here. But I don’t feel that we have to do exactly what GAO does,” Dicks added.

Also today, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley signed a resolution urging Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to accept the decision of the U.S. Air Force’s award of the aerial refueling tanker contract to Northrop and EADS. The move was praised by Northrop. The duo would assemble their KC-30 tanker in Mobile, Ala.