Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday rejected what they described as a “poison pill” amendment that Democrats say is intended to block President Trump from taking the Qatari luxury jet that the Pentagon intends to use as Air Force One with him after his presidency.
The committee voted 15-14 against adopting the amendment during consideration of the annual defense funding bill.
The amendment offered by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a senior appropriator, sought to block funds from being used in a manner that would enable transfer of “a presidential air transport aircraft that has been under foreign registry to a nongovernmental entity until the aircraft has served as a presidential air transport aircraft through the end of its service life.”
During the markup session, Murphy cited recent reporting about the potential costs of upgrading the Boeing 747-8, which was previously used by the Qatari royal family.
“This is an extraordinary amount of money to be used on a plane retrofit that will likely only be in service for a short period of time. Well, the administration has essentially refused to brief us on the full cost,” he said. “Reports are that this number could be easily $1 billion.”
“To most Americans, that’s a lot of their money to be spent on a plane that is not going to be in the service of the United States military, in the United States Air Force, for perhaps any longer than a few months, because the president has, in fact, stated his intention to take this plane with him when he leaves office.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), head of the subcommittee that crafted the Pentagon funding bill, pushed back on Murphy’s comments shortly after and said senators should not “marinate on rumors and speculation about what could happen years from now.”
“We should be briefed on the long-term disposition plans before rushing to take action such as this, for which this simply [has] no urgency. The amendment is intended as a poison pill and political theater,” he said, arguing the amendment is “better suited” as part of consideration for the national defense authorization bill lawmakers hope to pass in the coming months.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), a member of the committee, argued in response to McConnell’s comments that “beyond rumor and speculation that Senator Murphy just quoted the president firsthand with respect to his intentions.”
“To address this claim that’s been made a few times, this is ‘a poison pill,’ if I understand correctly, that means that the Senate would refuse to fund the Pentagon … unless it allows the president to accept a jet from a foreign prince,” he said. “If that’s true, I’d like to understand why that is the line in the sand that would be drawn.”
The amendment came after both sides clashed over a previous measure proposed by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), another senior appropriator, that sought to block funding from being used to operate or modify the jet.
The report comes as previous reports from multiple outlets indicated the administration planned to transfer the jet to Trump’s presidential library after his term ends.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a spending cardinal, argued the president has only jokingly said the jet would be transferred to his library, however.
“The president has never came out and said he’s putting this in the library. He said it in a joke one time,” he said, adding that there have been talks instead “about using the current one that has been in the air for over 35 years to possibly be retired and go in the presidential library.”
“Senator Mullin, on May 12, the president of the United States said this, this plane will, quote, ‘Go directly to my presidential library at the end of my term,’” Murphy later argued. “There was no great chuckle from the audience after he said that you may interpret that as a joke. It certainly didn’t seem to be intended as a joke.”
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