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.
House and Senate leaders are near a final deal on comprehensive reauthorization legislation, and some lawmakers are hopeful that an agreement could be reached shortly. Negotiations on the bill reached the highest levels of Congress—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on the FAA bill last week. And while committee-level leaders are focused on passing a reauthorization bill by the end of the year, Reid notes that Congress still has until the end of January before the current authorization expires.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are using a congressionally inflicted penalty to drive a wedge between the White House and Pentagon. In August, Congress OK’d the Budget Control Act, which stipulated that lawmakers had to agree how to direct $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. Without such an agreement, a penalty known as sequester involving $1.2 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending – including $600 billion for security spending – would fall on government agencies starting on Jan. 2, 2013.
A labor issue that has held up progress on the FAA reauthorization bill could soon be resolved. The House version of the FAA bill contains a contentious provision that would overturn a rule of the National Mediation Board (NMB) to make it more difficult for airline workers to unionize. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to introduce legislation that would change the NMB rule in a different way, so that unions could be dissolved just as easily as they are created.
