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General Electric and Britain’s Rolls-Royce are stepping up their fight on Capitol Hill to save a multibillion-dollar engine program President Bush scrapped from his 2007 budget request.
For Rolls-Royce and General Electric, the stakes are high in the battle to save the alternate-engine program for the multinational Joint Strike Fighter (JSF): the two companies could be effectively shut out of the largest fighter-jet market for the next 40 years, several defense industry sources said.
“We are disappointed that the Department of Defense has decided that, after years of support, the engine is no longer required,” said Mike Ryan, Rolls-Royce’s executive vice president for government affairs. “The merits [of the program] are overwhelming, and we are hopeful that Congress in providing its oversight role [will] recognize those merits and restore the whole program.” Lobbyists for Rolls-Royce and GE are targeting key offices in the House and Senate this week and will be doing so in the coming weeks as well until the Armed Services and Appropriations committees mark up the 2007 bills, industry sources said. Rolls-Royce also has help from the Livingston Group, Robinson International and Dellums & Associates. Also, there has been talk in Britain, which is the biggest partner for the JSF, about pulling out of the program.