Rooney: End of GE's Fighter Engine Could Bring Back Florida Jobs

Congressman Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is once again marking what is seen as the end of General Electrics engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, saying the termination of the duplicate engine could help Palm Beach County and Florida jobs.

GE Aviation announced Friday that it was giving up on the backup engine that the U.S. House voted to halt funding for in February.

GE Aviation, working with Rolls Royce, had tried to keep the engine program operational using its own money.

The GE Aviation engine was considered the alternative to the F-35's primary engine, built by Hartford, Conn.-based Pratt & Whitney, which has a plant in northern Palm Beach County, an area that is within Rooney's congressional district.

Ending this wasteful program will not only save taxpayer money, it may also help boost job creation here in Florida, Rooney stated in a release.

Growing up in Palm Beach Gardens, many of my friends parents worked for Pratt & Whitney and made a good living, but those jobs have gone away over the last couple of decades. I hope that by terminating the extra engine program and focusing federal funds on the original Pratt engine, we can help bring some of those jobs back to Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast area.

The backup engine was thought to be put to rest in April, when the Pentagon informed GE that its funding was cut.

In February, the House had voted 233-198 in support of Rooneys amendment to cut $450 million in funding for the engine from the current years budget. The engine was expected to cost $3 billion to develop.

Rooney was given credit for teaming freshmen Republican with progressive Democrats for the vote to defeat the engine which was supported by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other key members of the GOP. GE Aviation, a subsidiary of GE, is based out of the Cincinnati suburb of Evendale, Ohio.

Opposition to the engine came from President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush and the Pentagon.