In House, Missile Defense Leader Franks Reelected, But So Too Is Tauscher

Key Appropriations Leadership May See Shakeup After Election

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the SASC ranking Republican, will be returning in the next Congress.

SASC has oversight of missile defense programs.

Levin handily won reelection last week, garnering 63 percent of the vote in a crowded field of six challengers, in which Republican Jack Hoogendyk took 34 percent of the vote.

And McCain will remain a senator, after losing his bid as Republican presidential candidate in a general election battle with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic presidential nominee, who will enter the White House in January.

While no official decision has been made yet, McCain likely would remain the ranking Republican on the SASC. But, assuming that Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, is ousted from the Senate because of his conviction on corruption charges, that would give McCain the option to be ranking Republican on the Commerce-Science panel, instead of on SASC.

The Commerce-Science panel has oversight of NASA. (Please see full story in this issue.)

As a presidential candidate, McCain called for much sharper oversight of contractors, with a tight rein on the contracting community. He has criticized contractors that produce hardware for both the Department of Defense and for NASA.

As a senator, McCain already has moved in that direction. For example, he was largely responsible for halting a plan for the Air Force to lease-purchase 100 aerial refueling tanker planes from The Boeing Co. [BA], and later helped unearth a conflict of interest by the Air Force procurement official handling the tanker deal, which killed it.

Years of delays ensued, giving Airbus Industrie, and unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., time to develop an aerial refueling boom. Then, when the Air Force rebid the contract, Airbus, with Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] acting as the prime contractor, offered a tanker based on an Airbus commercial airliner to compete against Boeing.

While the Air Force picked the Airbus plane, Boeing successfully protested the bid. So now, for the third time, the Air Force will hold a competition, with a request for proposals expected next year.

And very likely, McCain still will be on the SASC when that occurs.

Generally, the SASC under Levin’s and McCain’s leadership has generally been more favorable to missile defense programs, especially those in early stages of development, than the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee.

Another proponent of both space and missile defense, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), chairman of the SASC strategic forces subcommittee with oversight of missile defense programs, coasted to reelection, drawing 63 percent of the vote to the 37 percent taken by his challenger, Democrat Vivian Figures.

Sessions represents a state that includes both the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army Redstone Arsenal, which contains the Army Aviation and Missile Command. Those facilities are located at Huntsville, Ala.

House Authorization Results

In the House, meanwhile, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) strategic forces subcommittee with oversight of missile defense programs, handily won reelection.

Franks, co-chairman and founder of the bipartisan Congressional Missile Defense Caucus, now likely becomes the senior Republican on the subcommittee, since the ranking Republican, Rep. Terry Everett of Alabama, decided not to seek reelection.

Franks easily won reelection, taking 59 percent of the votes cast, versus 37 percent for his Democratic opponent, John Thrasher.

The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), who at times has attempted to make deep cuts in some missile defense programs still in development, such as the Airborne Laser.

Tauscher, too, won reelection, capturing 35 percent of the vote versus 31 percent for Republican challenger Nicholas Gerber.

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Bush has been a staunch proponent of missile defense, and in the end, each year Congress has approved most of the funds Bush sought for missile defense programs.

However, with the election of Democrat Barack Obama as the next president, taking office in January, the question now will be whether a Democratic-led Congress, holding even more seats in both houses, will attempt deep spending cuts in missile defense programs.

Obama, while thought to have tepid support for missile defense, is from Chicago, home to The Boeing Co. [BA], which leads the Airborne Laser program, and the Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) system installed in Alaska and California.

Though the United States wishes to install a variant of the GMD shield in Europe, where it would be the European Missile Defense (EMD) system, Russia has threatened the planned EMD, and Obama may not wish to have his presidency begin with Russians pushing him around. (Please see separate story in this issue.)

Missile Defense Appropriations

In missile defense appropriations, there may be some major changes at the top, in both the full appropriations-controlling committee and its defense subcommittee.

For example, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) for a decade has been Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.). But he is 90 years old, and under pressure from some in the Senate, Byrd announced Friday he will step down from the chairmanship. Byrd wasn’t up for reelection this year.

Next in line for the committee chairmanship would be Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the SAC defense subcommittee (SAC-D), who also wasn’t up for reelection this year.

A question here is whether Inouye might be more inclined to go for the full-committee SAC chairmanship, or to retain his current chairmanship of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that has oversight of NASA, among various programs. (Please see full story in this issue.)

Inouye’s friend and colleague, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the SAC-D ranking Republican, was up for reelection this year. Stevens thus far appears to have narrowly won another six-year Senate term, pulling about 48 percent against a 47 percent showing by Democratic candidate Mark Begich.

However, Stevens stands convicted of seven felony corruption charges, and it is possible that even if he is found to have won the election, he may be ejected from the Senate under ethics rules.

On the GOP side on the full SAC, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi is the ranking Republican on the committee. He grabbed 62 percent of the vote to trounce his Democratic opponent, Eric Fleming, who scored a 38 percent showing.

Cochran would be next in line among Republicans. Cochran’s state, Mississippi, is home to major Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] shipbuilding interests, which build missile defense ships such as the Arleigh Burke destroyers that use the Aegis weapon guidance system by Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] and Standard Missiles by Raytheon Co. [RTN].

Northrop also is involved in several other missile defense programs, such as the Airborne Laser led by Boeing, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor led by Northrop, part of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, and a key component in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.

House Appropriations

The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (HAC), Rep. Dave Obey (D-Mich.), wasn’t on the ballot this year.

Next in seniority on the full committee among HAC Democrats is Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, currently chairman of the HAC defense subcommittee (HAC-D). Murtha won reelection, taking 58 percent of the vote versus his Republican opponent, William Russell, with just 42 percent.

Murtha has supported ballistic missile defense programs better than House authorizers such as Tauscher.

The ranking Republican on the full appropriating committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, won reelection. He took 61 percent of the vote, while his Democratic opponent Tim Prince trailed with 39 percent.

Also returning to Capitol Hill will be Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida, ranking Republican on the HAC-D. Young garnered 61 percent of the vote, stiff-arming his Democratic opponent, Bob Hackworth, who came up short with a 39 percent showing.