Word: sst
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...nation's environmentalist lobby, refreshed by its success, had turned to other concerns. So had the Boeing Company. After the Senate abruptly voted down further funds for development of the supersonic transport in March, Boeing laid off more than 5,000 workers, dispersed its crack team of SST designers and engineers, and closed down the Seattle factory where for four years it had been creating a supersonic prototype...
...last week, in a classic display of legislative legerdemain, the Administration and the House Republican leadership succeeded in resurrecting the SST, at least temporarily, and reopening the debate on whether the U.S. needs or wants the aircraft on which it has already spent $864 million in Government funds. By a vote of 201 to 197, the House appropriated another $85 million to allow continuation of the project...
...irony especially bitter to anti-SST forces was the source of the $85 million: it was money originally intended to compensate Boeing and General Electric, the two main contractors, for the cancellation. But two weeks ago, House Republican Leader Gerald Ford and G.O.P. Whip Les Arends went to the White House to report that a vote on the canceling appropriation might be deftly turned to revive the plane. "It would be a great thing to get this done," President Nixon told them. The President set his congressional liaison office to work on the project, but the real persuasion was accomplished...
Logrolling. The House vote in March to cancel the SST had been a close 215 to 204, with twelve not voting. Moving quietly to avoid arousing the anti-SST forces, Ford issued blunt and personal appeals, concentrating on Republicans who had earlier voted against the plane. His basic pitch was party loyalty, backed up sometimes by plain logrolling...
...Georgia's John Davis, originally an opponent of the SST, Ford declared: "If you want support on that guaranteed loan to Lockheed, you'd better vote with us." With the Administration soon to send up a bill providing Government backing for a $250 million loan to Lockheed Aircraft, which employs 20,000 of Davis' constituents, the Georgian voted yes for the SST. Republican John Thomas Myers of Indiana was an easy switch. "He wants to go to the air show in Paris," a party leader said, meaning that the House leadership could prevent Myers from making...