| Snicker, slipped one by them, who would vote against a amendment like that. |
Mr. Dodd charged that Agusta Westland is considering marketing to Iran and said that should concern Americans. "There are few more sensitive and more important national security concerns than the safe transport of our nation's chief executive," Mr. Dodd said. "This measure can help protect our national security by ensuring that America's adversaries don't gain access to our nation's critically important technology." Mr. Dodd said a better option is to keep the contract with "the all-American-made Sikorsky helicopter."
| Hell, that works for me. That's why you'll never see Air Force One being a AirBus. |
The amendment is part of the Senate's foreign affairs authorization bill and has to pass a number of legislative hurdles to take effect. Still, it was a legislative coup for Mr. Dodd, though it brought the Senate to a halt yesterday afternoon as both parties' leaders rushed to the floor to try to sort out the matter.
| "Wait a minute, I just voted for what?" |
"An amendment just passed without notice to any of us that involves a dispute about a helicopter between New York and Connecticut," he said. "I didn't know of that amendment, neither did Senator Clinton, neither did anybody else."
But a Senate source said Mr. Schumer had been on the floor the entire time Mr. Dodd was speaking about his amendment.
| Just what I thought, slipped it by.. |
| Watch your back, Chris. And don't visit any DC parks. |
The $6.1 billion contract was awarded in January. It covers 23 helicopters, with the first to be delivered in 2009. Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky had battled fiercely for the contract to build Marine One, the designation given to helicopters used to transport presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower.