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Defense panelist districts get heaps of funds
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan calls his appointment to the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee “a huge win” for his congressional district.
An examination by The Vindicator of federal defense-related money given to subcommittee members’ congressional districts — and nearby districts — reveals the Mahoning Valley could be a big winner with Ryan’s appointment.
Subcommittee members receive millions of dollars from the House’s defense appropriations budget.
Even the least-senior members of the subcommittee bring home funding.
The congressional district of U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from New York, received about $25 million since his appointment to the subcommittee in January 2009.
That included money to research military-armor technology, to buy tents and other shelter from a company in his district, and to train Army helicopter crews for simulated exercises.
Until Ryan’s appointment Wednesday, Hinchey and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheek Kilpatrick of Michigan were the least senior Democrats on the defense subcommittee.
Kilpatrick was instrumental in General Dynamics Land Systems, located just outside her congressional district, obtaining more than $700 million in defense contracts since her appointment. That company makes medical- evacuation vehicles for the military.
The defense appropriations budget is the largest in dollars in the federal government. Its most recent budget was $625.9 billion.
The money goes toward defense-related items such as military operations and training; health care for uniformed and civilian personnel; maintenance of arms, equipment and facilities; and development and purchase of equipment.
“Having the opportunity to steer federal defense dollars to our district will accelerate the economic progress of our region and further promote the Tech Belt initiative,” said Ryan of Niles, D-17th. “I will make sure everyone doing business with the Pentagon knows what a great place Northeast Ohio is to do business.”
Ryan said his new position will have a “significant impact” on the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and its 910th Airlift Reserve Wing as well as the Ravenna Arsenal, and local manufacturers and contracts that provide equipment and services to the military.
The more senior members of the subcommittee also do well for their districts.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, D-15th, has obtained about $50 million for her district, including $30 million last year for new F-16 fighter jet engines for Toledo’s Air National Guard Fighter Wing. Kaptur is the fourth most senior Democrat on the committee.
Serving on the committee since 2005 has meant a “substantial amount of money for the district. It’s not small change,” said Steve Fought, Kaptur’s spokesman.
The defense subcommittee is so powerful, Fought said, that Kaptur rejected serving as chairwoman of the agriculture subcommittee because it would have meant giving up her defense seat.
The Mahoning Valley will greatly benefit from Ryan serving on defense, Fought said.
“The Valley has a long history of industrial defense-oriented businesses,” he said. “For industrial areas, this committee makes a lot of sense. It matches up manufacturing with defense. It’s very promising” for this area.
As for the power of those sitting on the subcommittee, Fought said: “I’ll be blunt, when you’re on the defense subcommittee, you get your phone calls returned from people in the Pentagon.”
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, a Democrat from Washington, who’s been on the subcommittee for 31 years, has brought in more than $1 billion in defense money to his district, and those that surround it, in the past three years while serving as its vice chairman.
The subcommittee’s most senior member, Dicks was named its chairman on March 9 after the death of then-chairman John Murtha of Pennsylvania.