From PBS NewsHour.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was pressed for more details Wednesday about the U.S. accepting a luxury Boeing 747 as a gift from the Qatari government.
Hegseth’s testimony came during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the department’s budget. The Air Force is expected to reconfigure the plane so it can be used by President Donald Trump as Air Force One.
There have been slim details on the future presidential aircraft and Hegseth declined to offer more information to lawmakers Wednesday.
“Any specifics about future aircraft that could be Air Force One can’t be discussed here,” he told Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., adding that a memorandum of understanding remains to be signed.
Reed pressed on with a question about a contract the U.S. signed with a company to reconfigure the aircraft, asking whether that contract was signed and an estimate for the final cost. Hegseth said such information “cannot be revealed in this setting.”
“Why can’t it be revealed?” Reed asked. “This is the appropriation committee of the United States Senate. We appropriate the money that you will spend after it’s authorized by my committee, and you cannot tell us how much the contract is for?”
Hegseth declined to provide a figure. Reed again asked if a contract was signed. Hegseth said he wasn’t aware of a contract being executed, though Reed said this is contrary to what he’s heard.
Reed asked about a delivery time in the contract. Hegseth said that kind of information “is not for public consumption.”
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