Mike Levin: “last year's Defense Appropriations Act contained a provision which authorized the Secretary of the Air Force to pursue…”

“last year's Defense Appropriations Act contained a provision which authorized the Secretary of the Air Force to pursue multiyear leases for two types of aircraft, up to four Boeing 737 aircraft and up to 100 Boeing 767 aircraft. That provision exempted these leases from the requirement for congressional authorization in sections 2401 of title X which I thought was an unfortunate action on the part of the Appropriations Committee. That was last year. After the enactment of that provision by our good friends, the appropriators, the Secretary of the Air Force appeared before the Armed Services Committee and he made a personal commitment to us that he would not proceed with a lease without first coming to both the authorizing committee and the Appropriations Committee for approval of funding required for the lease. In the case of the proposed Boeing 737 lease, the four planes, the Secretary lived up to that commitment.”