President Donald Trump may not be seeing red, white and blue on a newly revamped Air Force One after all.
A House Democrat added a provision to the annual defense policy bill to put a stop to the president’s patriotic design project. It will keep two new versions of the Boeing 747 aircraft within the projected spending target by banning certain paint jobs and other extras.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said the provision is necessary to avoid extra spending that goes beyond the project’s $3.9 billion budget. The contract for the planes includes an “over and under” clause that could allow the project spending to go out of control, he warned.
“It will be a well-appointed plane when the new ones roll out,” Courtney said during a marathon session for the defense legislation before the House Armed Services Committee “What we’re trying to do is just make sure that the ‘over and above’ clause provision of the Air Force One contract does not become basically a back door for the program to hemorrhage in terms of additional costs.”
The amendment was adopted at the end of the hours-long hearing Thursday morning as part of the House panel’s overall passage of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.