Peninsula Daily News
news sources
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Norm Dicks on Thursday officially was designated chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing Pentagon spending, succeeding Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who died Feb. 8.
The position makes Dicks, the Belfair Democrat whose 6th Congressional District includes the North Olympic Peninsula, one of the most powerful members of Congress.
The House Appropriations Committee voted to install Dicks as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
In turn, Dicks yielded the chairmanship of the Appropriations subcommittee for Interior, Environment and Related Agencies to Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. He will still sit on the committee.
Dicks, 69, first elected to Congress in 1976, has served on the defense subcommittee since 1979. The panel controls half of the discretionary spending in the federal budget, to the tune of $708 billion for 2011. By comparison, the interior subcommittee oversees $27 billion in programs.
Dicks’ appointment must still be approved by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and by the full Democratic caucus. He had no challengers.