Washington, D.C. – Tonight, the U.S. Senate failed to pass an amendment supported by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) to strip $2.5 billion from the Defense Appropriations bill to fund the purchase of ten C-17 military aircraft that the Department of Defense didn’t want.  The amendment, sponsored by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) would have saved $2.5 billion that will be spent on ten C-17 aircrafts opposed by the Department of Defense.  The Obama administration had already stated its opposition to the $2.5 billion for the additional C-17s stating that Defense Department analyses have shown that the current number of C-17s in the force and on order, along with other aircraft, are sufficient to meet the Defense Department’s needs.  

“The Senate has unfortunately failed once again to put the taxpayers’ interests ahead of its own,” Feingold said. “We are now going to spend $2.5 billion on a military aircraft our own Defense Department doesn’t want. Congress should not be wasting taxpayer dollars on lawmakers’ pet projects, especially in the face of record deficits. We need to get our defense spending priorities right so we can adequately address the real world threats we face today, and not waste taxpayer dollars on unnecessary projects.”

The Senate went on to pass the Defense Appropriations bill.  Senator Feingold was one of seven senators to vote against it.  Earlier this year, Feingold was part of a successful, bipartisan effort to save billions of taxpayer dollars by stopping the purchase of seven additional F-22 Raptor aircraft, a Cold War relic that had never flown a mission in Iraq or Afghanistan and the Department of Defense said it did not want.