[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 13, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S3914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2875. Mr. RUBIO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to 
amendment SA 2282 proposed by Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr. McCain) 
to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2019 
for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle D of title I, add the following:

     SEC. __. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON CONVERSION OF F-22 AIRCRAFT.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) Accelerating the modernization upgrade of F-22A Block 
     20 training and test aircraft would significantly increase 
     the total available inventory of combat-capable F-22A Block 
     35 fighter aircraft.
       (2) Converting 34 F-22A Block 20 aircraft to a Block 35 
     configuration would drastically improve the readiness and 
     health of the entire F-22A fleet and increase flexibility to 
     manage availability of the combat-coded Block 35 fleet, which 
     is accumulating more operational flight hours than initially 
     anticipated.
       (3) Making the conversions described in paragraph (2) would 
     be a cost-effective way to increase the F-22's combat-capable 
     force by 27 percent.
       (4) If the conversion effort is not included in future base 
     budgets, it would be advisable for the Department of Defense 
     to support the effort as an unfunded priority.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
     the Secretary of the Air Force should accelerate 
     modernization of the F-22 Block 20 training and test aircraft 
     as quickly as possible.
                                 ______