The next article in a continuing Monday morning series on The Air Force's C-17 airlifter cargo plane built in Long Beach.

What happened this week?--Everything--or, nothing

First, a recap. This is a contest between the Obama Administration, as represented by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, (hereinafter known as the Challengers) and the Boeing Company along with a bipartisan host of elected officials from around the country, (hereinafter known as the Defenders). This match began on April 6, 2009, when the Challengers announced their plans to end production of C-17s. Since that time, the Defenders have been lobbying hard to reverse that decision. This current round involves the 2009 supplementary funding bill, now pending in congress.

Before our intermission, otherwise known as congresses Memorial Day recess, there were two different versions of the supplementary funding bill. The House version included $2.2 billion for 8 more C-17s, but the Senate version did not include any funding for more of the planes. In last week's match up, the House and Senate conference committee started work to combine the two bills and work out the differences, so a bill can be approved by both houses and sent to President Obama to be signed into law.

Last month, Secretary Gates said he needed a bill passed by Memorial Day to continue the funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even though the Administration did not request it, The House version of the bill would add on funding for more C-17s. The Memorial Day deadline came and went and no bill was passed by both houses of congress. As of this writing, still no bill has been passed, but the conference committee has been working on it.

Prior to the Memorial Day recess, even though the senate version of the funding bill did not include any additional C-17's, the Defenders expected the additional funds would be added in the conference committee. The version of the bill on which the conference committee is working has not yet been made public, so from that perspective, nothing happened in this round. The rumors, however, are that the conferees agreed to add the $2.2 billion as in the House bill. From that point of view, the Defenders have won the round.

In an unattributed statement, The Associated Press reported last week that the war funding bill was "expected" to include the 8 C-17s. However, it was also reported that other items expected to be added to the Administration's request could put passage of the bill in some doubt. Specifically, funding for a line of credit for the International Monetary Fund is expected to be included in the bill, against the wishes of some conservative House Republicans. This is the first serious mention we have read of the bill loosing the widespread support it has enjoyed to this point.

Just as Some conservative House members are starting to express opposition to the bill because of the inclusion of non-war related items, some liberal representatives are opposed to the bill because they are against the war. Passage of this bill is critical for funding the wars, so we continue to expect the bill will eventually be passed and signed. Also, since in these recessionary times not many elected officials want to come out hard against a job producing program like the C-17, we continue to expect the final bill will include the planes.

If the final bill includes the 8 additional planes, that only extends the production line into the third quarter of 2011. Boeing is working on international contracts for 6 more planes and that could extend the line into the end of 2011, but then what? According to the Obama Administration, this will be the last supplementary war funding bill. Funding for the wars has already been included in the fiscal 2010 defense budget--and that budget, as submitted by the Challengers, does not include any more C-17s. It is very possible that, each year, the Challengers submit a defense budget without more C-17s, the congress funds more planes anyway, and the line keeps cranking them out endlessly, needed or not.