Based in Washington, Jen manages Aviation Week’s worldwide defense, space and security coverage.
Prior to taking on her current role, Jen was Aviation Week's Congressional Editor. Jen came to Aviation Week in March 2011 from Politico, where she covered the intersection of defense and politics. She also worked as a reporter and editor for Defense Daily, Inside the Army, The Other Paper and The Columbus Dispatch.
Jen received a Master’s degree in journalism as a Kiplinger Fellow at the Ohio State University. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from the University of Michigan.
Battles over how to reduce the federal deficit are far from over. To offset a $600 billion reduction scheduled to fall on defense spending, congressional Republicans are pledging that they can pull together a package of items early next year — such as the sale of wireless spectrum, freezing the pay of government workers and reducing the federal workforce (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 15). The plan is going over like a lead balloon among Democrats, who argue that Republicans helped craft the plan they are now trying to run away from.
The defense authorization bill, providing $662.4 billion for national defense programs along with plans to continue funding Lockheed Martin’s Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), passed in the Senate Dec. 15 by a vote of 86-13. The bill also takes Lockheed’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to task for problems with development while in production. But it pushes out by one year an effort by Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, to have Lockheed pick up the tab for cost overruns exceeding a certain amount.
Senate Republicans are building a bill to spare the Pentagon huge budget cuts, pledging to reach an agreement with Democrats on deficit reduction that they failed to achieve in November.
