House Dem wants F-35 funds for reserves

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) plans to offer an amendment to the House version of the defense policy bill that would funnel money away from the costly F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and give it to the National Guard and Reserve.

The measure, the text of which was provided to The Hill, would divert $589 million from an authorized $1 billion funding boost proposed by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas). The funds, intended for six additional F-35 aircraft, would go into an equipment account for the Guard and Reserve.

{mosads}The increase was included in the $611 billion “chairman’s mark” of the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was rolled out on Monday. 

Thornberry’s budget blueprint also approved the Pentagon’s requested funding for 57 of the stealth fighter jets.

The F-35 program, with a price tag of around $400 billion, is the Pentagon’s costliest weapon systems in history.

Speier and the rest of Armed Services panel will mark up their draft of the NDAA on Wednesday.