U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District Photo by Eric Connolly

Maine 2nd District Congressman Jared Golden has been named vice chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Navy’s shipbuilding contracts.

The Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee oversees the acquisition program for shipbuilding at shipyards like Bath Iron Works and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

“Navy sailors should be defending our country with the best ships in the world, and those ships are built by the shipbuilders at Bath,” Golden wrote in a statement Wednesday. “As the new Vice Chair of the Seapower Subcommittee, I’ll use my position to help protect thousands of good jobs at the shipyard, work to prepare the next generation of Maine shipbuilders, and ensure American servicemembers are well-equipped to protect our nation.”

BIW, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, is one of the state’s largest employers and is known for building Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for the Navy.

Bath Iron Works issued this statement Wednesday: “We congratulate Rep. Golden on this important committee assignment. This is a critical time for the U.S. Navy, when challenges across the globe are compelling us to expand and modernize the U.S. fleet. Fortunately, our congressional delegation understands these challenges and the vital role the shipbuilders of Bath Iron Works serve in meeting them.”

Golden’s elevated role will grant him more sway when the committee is deciding on naval shipbuilding acquisitions, such as the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which directs how federal funds should be used by the Department of Defense.

“Our subcommittee is tasked with ensuring that the U.S. Navy remains unrivaled at sea, and with pushing forward the top priorities of our Air Force, Navy, and armed services, all of which support America’s domestic manufacturing workforce,” Rep. Joe Courtney, chairman of the seapower subcommittee, wrote in a statement Wednesday. “No one is better suited to be at the table where decisions are made on these issues than Congressman Golden—a former U.S. Marine who is intimately familiar with the impact our work has on our servicemembers, and a Representative from Maine, where shipbuilders and engineers work hard every day to produce the ships our Navy relies on.”

Golden, a Democrat, was also named to the Subcommittee on Readiness, which oversees military readiness, training, logistics and maintenance and military construction, among others.

Golden previously sat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee in during his first term in office.