THE CONGRESS: Half a Wing for the SST

The 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.

But 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.

An 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 by Ford and Arends, with help from House Speaker Carl Albert and lobbyists for organized labor.

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.

To 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 the junket. Arends worked a different vein. “Nixon wants this,” he repeated to his colleagues. “It’s a grand thing to do in the long run.” Later he confessed: “Sure, we squeezed—the best we can.”

Thus, unexpectedly, a routine vote to pay off the contractors became a decision to try to fly the SST again. Just before it was taken, Democrat Sidney Yates of

Illinois, a key figure in the earlier House defeat of the SST, was in the Speaker’s lobby. “We’ve got a chance,” he said hopefully. “I’ve got a couple of guys I think I can switch.” Ohio’s Donald Clancy, a Ford henchman, overheard him. “We’ve got some more,” he told Yates. Yates sagged, for he realized that the Republican leaders had more votes in reserve than he did. “God damn you,” Yates said halfheartedly.

At the formal roll call, a majority of members on the House floor opposed the SST, but Ford had persuaded six Republicans to vote “present” instead of “no.” That made the difference. “They used every trick imaginable,” said Massachusetts’ Silvio Conte, the G.O.P. leader of the anti-SST faction. “They twisted arms! What’s changed since March? Nothing! Nothing!”

Fatal Estimate. Actually, a great deal had changed, especially at Boeing. Having dismantled the SST operation over the previous seven weeks, Boeing Board Chairman William M. Allen estimated the day after the House vote that it would now cost between $500 million and $1 billion in fresh Government financing to get the project going again. Said Allen: “In this business you just don’t turn it on and off like a spigot.”

Allen’s estimate may be a fatal blow to the new hopes for the SST. Supporters of the plane have argued that the price of going on would actually be less than the cost of terminating the project.

Last week’s House appropriation must still survive the Senate, which last March voted 51 to 46 to cancel the SST. Senators may be more reluctant to reverse their ground. Anti-SST Senators were confident of defeating the new appropriation in a vote this week. If they do not, they will undoubtedly try to filibuster it to death.