The Pentagon’s F-35 fighter jet program may be set for a good 2019 on Capitol Hill.
One of its top proponents, Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, has been picked by her party as the new ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, which will hold the purse strings when it comes to future purchases of the pricey jets.
The Republican Steering Committee elected her for the spot on Thursday as its most senior member and current chairman on Appropriations, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., is set to retire.
“The hard work to reform the committee begins today,” Granger said in a statement following the vote.
Lockheed Martin has a mile-long assembly plant for the F-35 jets in Fort Worth that is in Granger’s district. Earlier this year the congresswoman, who is serving as the chairwoman of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, spearheaded $9.3 billion in funding to buy 93 of the aircraft.
That was 16 more of the aircraft, which cost about $89 million apiece, than the military had requested this year. The program is the most expensive in Pentagon history and is the flagship profit center for Lockheed, one of the biggest U.S. defense contractors.
Granger’s party was unable to hold the House majority in the midterm elections. But the ascent to the top Republican spot on the committee puts Granger in a powerful position to push more F-35 purchases as Congress begins a fight over whether to pump up the defense budget again in 2019 by tens of billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Democrats will take the House majority in January and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who has advocated for timely funding of the Pentagon, will ascend to Appropriations Committee chair.
It will be the first time in history that the powerful committee has been led by two women, according to the Washington Post.
