Boozman Expresses Conern of Aircrafts to House and Senate Appropriators

Statement

Boozman Expresses Conern of Aircrafts to House and Senate Appropriators

Congressman John Boozman sent the following letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Defense in regards to the purchasing of new aircraft to transport high ranking government officials:

It has come to my attention that more than $550 million has been earmarked in H.R. 3326, the "Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010," for the acquisition of several airplanes that will be used to transport high level government officials. While I voted for H.R. 3326 and understand that government officials require safe and reliable means for traveling on official business, I cannot support the purchase of these planes in a time when so many hard working Americans are struggling to make it week to week and month to month, or even just to find a job. My constituents are budgeting carefully and making sacrifices to weather the current economic environment and I believe that our government must do the same.

I was pleased to learn that Chairman Murtha is open to the idea of eliminating the funding for these planes from the bill. With the growing bipartisan opposition against this funding at this time, I believe it would be appropriate for the appropriators, either in the Senate or Conference Committee, to remove this funding from the legislation or shift it to a more appropriate item that better serves our men and women in uniform during this time of war.

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