Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is back in action, lambasting the Air Force for obfuscating the C-130J program and slow-rolling Congressional demands for more information. The Air Force apparently has not moved fast enough to convert the C-130J commercial contract to a standard military procurement arrangement. (It has just signed a draft agreement with Lockheed Martin.) Former acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez, at his confirmation hearing Wednesday for a top DOD personnel job, got the brunt of McCain’s wrath. McCain threatened to hold up the Dominguez nomination until the matter is “completely resolved.”
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…