February 4, 2013

Dayton Daily News By Barrie Barber DAYTON — U.S. Rep. Mike Turner's new position as chairman of a key House Armed Services subcommittee should boost the Air Force and the Dayton region and help the development of unmanned aerial systems, the leader of the Dayton Development Coalition said Wednesday. Turner, R-Dayton, is the chairman of the House Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee, which has oversight of key spending projects and policies of the Air Force and Army. Turner, Coalition President and CEO Jeff Hoagland along with Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, talked about the congressman's new post at a gathering with reporters Wednesday at the Coalition's headquarters in downtown Dayton. "The business of the subcommittee is very important to the Dayton region and to our economy and to the many Air Force employees and contractors that live and work in the region and in the state of Ohio," Hoagland said. Turner said Wolfenbarger would act as an adviser to him on Air Force issues. "If there are ways in which (congressional members) like Congressman Turner will invite us to provide our perspective, to share our concerns, to provide information that will help them make the best choices for the Department of Defense and for the country than we are all better served," Wolfenbarger said. Turner repeatedly said he would not answer questions about budget sequestration, the automatic and massive, across-the-board federal spending cuts that would cut about $500 billion out of the Defense budget for the next decade beginning March 1 unless Congress and President Barack Obama avert the fiscal crisis. "We've all talked fairly extensively on that issue and I'd be glad to give you some additional details in another forum," Turner said. "Certainly, that is one of the items that is on the to-do list that we are all going to have to work on." http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local-military/turners-defense-role-hailed-by-wright-pat-official/nWBJH/