Based in Washington, Jen managed Aviation Week’s worldwide defense, space and security coverage from 2013 to January 2024.
Prior to taking on the Executive Editor 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.
Leaders of the congressional defense committees can agree on this much regarding the threat of steep budget cuts looming next year: it’s time to reach for a deal. Last August, Congress passed a law calling for $1.2 trillion in federal deficit reduction. In the absence of an agreement on how to reduce the deficit, the law institutes a $1.2 trillion across-the-board federal budget cut in January 2013.
With law enforcement agencies eager to snap up new UAVs, Congress and the FAA are still in the early stages of trying to handle the resulting fears about the new form of surveillance. Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both first-term lawmakers, are sponsoring companion legislation that attempts to lend industry a hand by setting rules for the domestic use of UAVs before they proliferate widely. The bills would essentially require police to obtain a warrant for surveillance with UAVs as they currently do to wiretap phones.
The FAA’s NextGen air traffic modernization program cleared another hurdle late June 19, as the House Appropriations Committee approved nearly $1 billion for the program in a spending bill for fiscal 2013. The bill also scraps controversial user fees that would have instituted a $100-per-flight charge for both commercial and business jets and nearly tripled a passenger security fee.
