Obama Threatens to Veto $636B Defense Spending Bill Over Presidential Helicopter Program

Published December 24, 2015

As the House prepares to vote on a $636 billion military spending bill as early as Thursday, President Obama is threatening to veto it over $485 million in funds for new helicopters to fly him on short trips from the White House.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called the money for dozens of new ships, planes, helicopters and armored vehicles unnecessary, and the administration has said Obama may veto the Defense Department's entire $636 budget for 2010 if the extra expenditures are not cut from the legislation.

"The administration strongly objects to the addition of $400 million to make operational five partially-completed VH-71 helicopters," the White House said in a statement released Tuesday. "These helicopters currently have no mission equipment and would require in excess of $2 billion to complete and to operate as presidential helicopters, yet would still not meet full operational requirements for that mission."

The White House said that if the final legislation included funds to continue the existing VH-71 program, Obama's senior aides would "recommend that he veto the bill."

The bill is expected to come to a vote on the House floor on Thursday or Friday.

The White House won a significant battle when the Senate voted July 21 to delete the F-22 program from the defense spending bill -- much to the dismay of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and defense industry executives who said the program would have created thousands of new jobs.

Gates said the F-22 program is way over budget and criticized it for being ill-suited for 21st century wars. It is an air-to-air dogfighter poorly-equipped to take on ground targets and has not flown over Iraq and Afghanistan, the defense chief said.

While the administration said it is committed to keeping the U.S. military the "strongest and most capable in the world," it said it will advise the president to veto the bill if House lawmakers do not cut expenditures for provisions that "duplicate existing programs, or that have outlived their usefulness."

The White House also objected to plans by lawmakers to continue to fund an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but did not explicitly threaten a veto over the $560 million provision.

The $400 million in the House measure is a down payment toward finishing five of the troubled aircraft, which would be assembled at an upstate New York Lockheed Martin Corp., factory.

The White House says finishing the five helicopters would cost more than $2 billion more.

FOX News' Kelly Chernenkoff contributed to this report.

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