[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 22388]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               COSTLY AND UNNECESSARY SECOND F-35 ENGINE

  (Mr. QUIGLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because, despite opposition 
from the Secretary of Defense, the President, the Navy, the Air Force, 
and the Marine Corps, the Senate spending package still includes $450 
million for a second engine for the F-35. Americans across the country 
are tightening their belts, 15 million are unemployed, and many of 
those with jobs have not seen raises in years. But the Federal 
Government seems to think that it is exempt from this shared cost-
cutting.
  Despite the recession and ballooning debt, we continue to fund 
wasteful projects like the second engine, which our own military has 
asserted they neither need or want. Sadly, the second engine is just 
the tip of the defense spending iceberg, the lowest of the low-hanging 
fruit. According to a recent report by the Sustainable Defense Task 
Force, hundreds of billions could be cut from our defense budget 
without harming national security. There can be no sacred cows. Cost-
cutting has to include defense, and it should start with what Secretary 
Gates has called the ``costly and unnecessary'' second F-35 engine.

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