Senate Fails to Override Bush on FSX Plane

President Bush narrowly won his battle with Congress on Wednesday over the controversial U.S. deal with Japan for joint development of the FSX jet fighter plane, clearing the way for the two sides to begin work on the aircraft after nine months of delay.

Opponents of the FSX agreement failed to muster enough votes in the Senate to override Bush’s July 31 veto of legislation that would have imposed additional restrictions on the deal.

Bush’s margin was a single vote. Senators voted 66 to 34 in favor of overriding his veto--a scant one vote short of the two-thirds majority they would have needed to overturn his action. California’s two senators, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican Pete Wilson, voted to override Bush’s veto.

The closeness of the vote was seen as a political slap to Bush, who has prided himself on his harmonious relationship with Congress.

No House Vote Seen

The House is not expected to vote because of the Senate action. Unless both houses can muster the required majorities, the President’s veto is sustained.

The restrictions the lawmakers had added would have prohibited the transfer of jet engine technology from American to Japanese firms and insisted that U.S. companies be allocated at least 40% of any work contracts if the aircraft ultimately goes into production.

Proponents of the U.S.-Japan accord warned that the restrictions would be unenforceable and might prompt Japan to scrap the deal and seek a new partner--possibly a consortium from Western Europe--for joint development of the new fighter.

Bush’s veto, however, was on technical grounds. The President said that two additional provisions requiring review of the accord by the secretary of commerce and monitoring by the General Accounting Office were an unwarranted intrusion on his power.

The earlier action by Congress that led to the presidential veto followed months of negotiations between the United States and Japan over the terms of a previous accord that had been negotiated by the Reagan Administration.