WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden has been named a vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee.
As vice chair, Golden will take on an elevated role on the subcommittee, which oversees naval acquisition and contracts for military shipbuilding performed at Bath Iron Works (BIW), Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and other shipyards across the country.
“Navy sailors should be defending our country with the best ships in the world, and those ships are built by the shipbuilders at Bath,” Golden said in a statement. “As the new Vice Chair of the Seapower Subcommittee, I’ll use my position to help protect thousands of good jobs at the shipyard, work to prepare the next generation of Maine shipbuilders, and ensure American servicemembers are well-equipped to protect our nation.”
Golden served as a member of the committee during his first term in Congress. During that time, Golden helped secure work for BIW by including another Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 destroyer in the FY2021 defense authorization bill.
"Congressman Golden didn’t wait for a Vice Chairmanship to start making an impact on the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee—he’s been a force on our bipartisan panel since day one,” HASC Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said in a statement. “Our Subcommittee is tasked with ensuring that the U.S. Navy remains unrivaled at sea, and with pushing forward the top priorities of our Air Force, Navy, and armed services, all of which support America’s domestic manufacturing workforce. No one is better suited to be at the table where decisions are made on these issues than Congressman Golden—a former U.S. Marine who is intimately familiar with the impact our work has on our servicemembers, and a Representative from Maine, where shipbuilders and engineers work hard every day to produce the ships our Navy relies on. I’m proud to welcome Congressman Golden to this new leadership role as Vice Chair of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, and excited to continue our work together.”
In a statement to NEWS CENTER Maine, BIW congratulated Golden on his appointment.
“This is a critical time for the U.S. Navy, when challenges across the globe are compelling us to expand and modernize the U.S. fleet,” BIW said. “Fortunately, our congressional delegation understands these challenges and the vital role the shipbuilders of Bath Iron Works serve in meeting them.”
The other Subcommittee Vice Chairs include:
- Tactical Air and Land Forces: Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.)
- Military Personnel: Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas)
- Readiness: Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.)
- Strategic Forces: Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.)
- Intelligence and Special Operations: Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.)
- Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems: Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.)
Golden was also named to the HASC Subcommittee on Readiness, which oversees military readiness, training, logistics and maintenance, military construction, organic industrial base, the civilian and contract workforce, environment, military installations and real property management, family housing, base realignments and closures, and energy.
