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Rogers / 3 Senator Hathaway, R.

S.S._____

A BILL
To reduce US military funding for the creation of the next generation fighter jet F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and to
create new regulations regarding military and defense programs staying on budget and on schedule.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Military Funding Reform Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) American taxpayers will pay between will pay between 148 million and 337 million dollars per jet in 2015,
depending on the model.
2) As a result of the delays that have already occurred, the Air Force and the Navy are incurring substantial costs to
maintain their force sizes by extending the service life of fighters currently in the force.
3) The F-35 is the most expensive defense program in history, and reveals massive cost overruns, a lack of clear
strategic thought, and a culture in Washington that encourages incredible waste.
4) In 2014, the entire fleet of F-35s was grounded following an engine fire during testing, and the program has
experienced persistent software problems that have slowed mission testing and resulted in schedule delays.
5) The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is three years behind schedule and some 200 billion dollars over its
original budget.
6) In the US military, weapon programs can take 10 or more years to design, develop, produce, and deploy, with
cost increases of 20 to 40 percent occurring frequently.
7) The F-35 promises significant advances in military capability. Like many high-technology programs before it,
reaching that capability has put the program above its original budget and behind the planned schedule.
8) The Departments of the Navy and the Air Force placed orders for 150 F-35s from 2007 through 2013 and
anticipate purchasing about 2,300 more from 2014 through 2037. A single Air Force F-35A costs 138 million
dollars. A single Marine Corps F-35B costs 251 million dollars. A single Navy F-35C costs 337 million dollars. A
generic F-35 Joint Strike Fighter costs 178 million dollars.
9) The extreme sophistication of the F-35 and the additional technical challenge of building three distinct types of
aircraft with a common airframe and engine have resulted in significant cost growth and schedule delays, and
additional cost growth and schedule delays remain a possibility.
10) Current DOD plans call for acquiring a total of 2,457 JSFs. Hundreds of additional F-35s are expected to be
purchased by several U.S. allies, eight of which are cost-sharing partners in the program.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) This bill shall hereby reduce the budget for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program by 100 billion dollars and shall
limit the US Military to the purchase of 150 - 200 F-35 fighter jets. This bill mandates that all future military and
defense programs remain within 2 billion dollars of their initial budget, and remain within 2 years of their scheduled
time frames. The 100 billion dollars will be redistributed into a construction project for building a wall and a moat
around Washington D.C.
B) This bill shall be enforced by the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Defense and all funding
shall be provided in the existing military and defense budget. The Government Accounting Office shall be in charge
of the budget regulation. The US Department of Homeland Security shall be in charge of the construction of the wall
and moat.
C) Failure to comply with these mandates will result in the end of the F-35 Fighter Jet program and the cancellation
of the contract with Lockheed-Martin. This bill will take effect on January 1, 2016, and will expire on January 1,
2018 at which point the Department of Defense and Department of the treasury shall reevaluate the necessity of
more funding for the F-35 fighter jet program and the bill will be brought before Congress again for reconsideration.

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