President Signs FY10 Defense Authorization; Criticizes Government Overspending, Contracting Fraud
In a ceremony held Wednesday in the East Room of the White House, President Obama signed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which contains $680 billion in military funding but caps or terminates programs deemed by the administration to be troubled or unnecessary in an effort to limit wasteful spending. The president was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, USN.
“As Commander-in-Chief, I will always do whatever it takes to keep the American people safe, to defend this nation. And that’s why this bill provides for the best military in the history of the world,” Obama said. He continued, “But I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure. In fact, I think that wasting these dollars makes us less secure. And that’s why we have passed a defense bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process—reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.”
The president also noted the bill’s intended impact on the defense contracting process: “This bill also reduces waste and fraud in our contracting system, as well as our reliance on private contractors for jobs that federal employees have the expertise and the training to do.”
Among the programs and projects scrapped under the new authorization are the Army’s Future Combat System and a planned presidential helicopter. Production of the F-22 fighter jet also will be capped. At the same time, funding is appropriated for the F-35 joint strike fighter, the littoral combat ship and increased support for contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including expanded reconnaissance programs and a larger fleet of mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles.
Read the complete transcript of President Obama’s remarks.
Watch a video of the ceremony at the White House website.
Read the Department of Defense press release.
