The Obama Administration issued a new Statement of Administration Policy Friday as the Senate continued deliberation on the 2010 defense spending bill, admonishing lawmakers to forgo appropriators attempt to continue production on the C-17 airlifter. Unlike with the F-22, the Administration has not said it would veto the bill if it contains funding for C-17s; instead, it repeated the “strongly objects” wording used in its July 28 SAP.
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…