Kitsap Caucus

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., died today.

Murtha was chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on defense.

Next in line is U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair. He chairs interior, but we’ve made a call to see if that might change. We’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: Dicks’ chief of staff, George Behan, said Dicks will likely assume the Defense appropriations chairman position and will remain a member of the Interior appropriations, handing over the gavel there to someone else.

The Oregonian has a story with lots of information about Murtha.

Dicks sent the following statement:

We are all deeply saddened by the death of Chairman Jack Murtha, whose entire career has been dedicated to strengthening our national security and improving conditions for U.S. military personnel.

He was a strong leader and an exceptionally fair Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and I enjoyed serving with him on that panel for 31 years. He was a ‘hands-on’ Chairman, routinely traveling to areas of conflict where American troops were deployed, and I accompanied him on many of those trips. As much as he enjoyed hearing from the generals and the admirals in command, he always took the time to visit the mess hall and talk with individual troops who would give him a ‘boots-on-the-ground’ view of the conflict. In November I accompanied Chairman Murtha and five other subcommittee members to Afghanistan, which helped broaden our perspective of the complex task ahead for U.S. forces there.

Suzie and I expressed our heartfelt condolences to Joyce Murtha and the entire Murtha family today as we learned the sad news. The country has lost a real patriot; the Congress has lost a real workhorse; and I have lost a great friend.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Norm Dicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.