Obama OKs defense bill that includes GE engine

LYNN – Trumpeting a victory against careless spending, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed a $68 billion defense bill that includes an alternative jet engine built by GE for the U.S. military’s Joint Strike Fighter.The bill kills some costly weapons projects and expands war spending. In a major civil rights change, the law also makes it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation.The bill doesn’t provide any actual dollars, but rather sets guidance that is typically followed by congressional committees that decide appropriations. Obama hailed it as a step toward ending needless military spending that he called “an affront to the American people and to our troops.”Still, the president did not win every fiscal fight. He acknowledged he was putting his name to a bill that still had waste. The President was not in favor of salvaging the GE-Rolls Royce alternative engine because the same engine is already made by Pratt & Whitney. He had threatened to veto it.Various models of the Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning, will be used the the Navy, Marines and Air Force. The GE engine will be built mostly in Ohio but the overall contract is expected to boost production at the company’s River Works plant in Lynn.Obama signed the bill Wednesday in an elaborate East Room ceremony at the White House. The president says the bill finally cuts wasteful weapons projects that some lawmakers have spent years trying to kill. Among them is the Cold War-era F-22 fighter that critics have said is poorly suited for the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.Associated Press material was used in this report.