CCAGW Submits the Following Statement to Sen. McCain

before Senate Commerce Committee Hearing

(Washington, D.C.) As the Senate Commerce Committee prepares to hold a hearing on the recent Air Force contract agreement to give Boeing $17.1 billion to lease 100 767 re-fueling tankers, the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) urge Committee members to oppose this arrangement.  The tanker lease deal is expensive, unnecessary, budget-busting, scandalous, and the worst example of corporate welfare and backroom deal-making in recent memory.  It also violates federal law and sets an ominous precedent for similar deals in the future.  With the deficit at $480 billion and our troops facing danger around the world, the Commerce Committee has a duty to condemn this outrageous waste of tax dollars.

Ever since the tanker lease deal was surreptitiously inserted into the fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations bill, CCAGW has led the fight in opposition, from grassroots advocacy to the airwaves.  More than 7,500 CCAGW members from across the country have signed a Citizens Declaration against the lease deal, while another 3,500 have generated faxes in opposition to House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) support of the deal.  CCAGW has also praised the efforts of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his role as the voice of fiscal responsibility in attempting to stop this boondoggle. 

Both the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have concluded that the cost of leasing would be substantially higher than either upgrading the 127 existing KC-135E tankers or directly purchasing tanker aircrafts.  According to a May 2002 GAO report, the cost to upgrade, modernize and repair planes the Air Force already owns would be approximately $3.2 billion, a difference of $13.9 billion.  An August 2003 CBO report asserts that the lease plan could cost as much as $2 billion more than buying the planes outright, in contrast to the Air Force’s grossly inadequate estimate of $150 million.  CBO further states that this proposed leasing transaction would be no different from an outright purchase, only at a greater cost.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this lease arrangement is that it violates contracting and procurement rules.  CBO has concluded that the proposal does not meet the conditions for an operating lease described in the Congressional Scorekeeping Guidelines, and in OMB Circular A-11.  It therefore does not comply with the terms of Section 8159 of the Fiscal 2002 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which authorized the pilot program to lease the aircraft.  Should the Armed Services Committee agree to the lease, it would violate these laws and regulations and open the floodgates for similar questionable deals in the future.

The analysis is in, the experts and the people have spoken, and it is time for Congress to listen.  If the tanker lease deal is approved, Congress will be exposing precious defense dollars to increased waste, fraud and abuse.  Every dollar wasted at the Pentagon jeopardizes the safety and well-being of all our men and women in uniform.  CCAGW urges the Commerce Committee to express its disapproval of the tanker lease deal to protect the nation’s fiscal health and the well-being of our armed services for years to come.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.