The Los Angeles Times:
Two U.S. senators with sway over all federal spending have dealt a crippling bipartisan blow to the Pentagon’s troubled $2.7-billion program to use radar-carrying blimps to search for enemy missiles.
Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who holds the Democrats’ No. 2 leadership position in the Senate, have refused a request by the Obama administration to shift $27.2 million to the program to keep it alive.
Durbin now favors killing the blimp system, called JLENS
“The JLENS program has been a big disappointment to taxpayers,” Durbin’s spokesman, Ben Marter, said in a statement. “It has cost nearly $3 billion.… It’s time to end the program.”
The request for the $27.2 million was sent to Congress last month by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, who wanted the money to restart an operational exercise in which two JLENS blimps were supposed to stand sentry above the Washington, D.C., area.
The $27.2 million would have been on top of $45.5 million for JLENS included in President Obama’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.
Because Carter had asked for money to be shifted, or “reprogrammed,” from another defense program, his request needed unanimous approval from eight of the most senior members of the Senate and House appropriations panels.
By Wednesday, both Cochran and Durbin had quietly informed administration officials that they opposed the request. In addition to serving as Appropriations Committee chairman, Cochran leads the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and Durbin is its ranking Democrat.
In a statement, Cochran’s spokesman, Chris Gallegos, indicated that JLENS was unlikely to receive support for any funding from the Senate.
The denial of the $27.2 million, Gallegos said, “is an indication that the administration’s [$45.5-million] budget request for JLENS is likely to receive an icy reception from the committee.”
