Dec. 27—When the new Congress is seated next month, Crane will have a long-time advocate working in its corner in the U.S. House.
Congressman-elect Mark Messmer is taking over as the representative for Indiana’s eighth district.
Messmer says he is excited because he received his top committee request.
“I am thrilled with my committee assignments. I was named to the House Armed Services Committee. With the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center that is a huge issue economically for southern Indiana,” said Messmer. “I will be in a position to advocate for policies that can help with the things that folks at Crane work on. They are involved in a lot of high-tech weapons systems for the Navy and actually all sectors of the military. It includes electronic warfare, the submarine launched missile programs, the hyper-sonic programs. It is the center of support and the design hub for a lot of those specialty weapons.”
Messmer’s interest and support of Crane is nothing new. Shortly after his first election to the Indiana State House, Messmer formed a “Crane caucus” to work on state issues concerning the base.
“When I first was elected to the legislature we formed the Crane caucus in the house. We focused on supporting Crane and the things the legislature could do to help encourage the Department of Defense to invest in Crane,” he said. “When I joined the Indiana Senate, we converted it to a more of a defense caucus with a lot of emphasis on Crane. We also began working with Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis who does a lot of jet engine work for military aircraft. There is a Humvee company in northern Indiana. Raytheon has some radio operations in Fort Wayne.”
Messmer says he made it point during his legislative career to be on point for military related bills.
“In the 16 years I was in the House and Senate, when a bill involving military projects came up, I was either a sponsor or co-sponsor,” said Messmer. “That background was part of my pitch to the chairman on why I should be on the committee.”
Indiana’s Eighth District representatives have a long history of serving on the Armed Services Committee and acting as a supporter for Crane.
Congressmen from both parties, going back for 40 years, were on the committee. The only exception being during the last 14 years when Rep. Dr. Larry Bucshon went to the Commerce Committee.
“We can track back to Frank McCloskey in the early 1980’s being on the Armed Services Committee. John Hostettler served on the committee and so did Brad Ellsworth,” said Messmer. “When Larry Bucshon was elected, he wanted to be on the Energy and Commerce Committee and could not serve on the Armed Services Committee.”
During that time Indiana still had members on the Armed Services Committee. That seat was covered by northern Indiana representatives.
Messmer says he feels the assignment will help him better serve the district.
“I will be sitting in Crane’s corner,” he said. “I have hired a deputy from a retiring Colorado Springs congressman with a lot of House Armed Services background. He is a career military guy and fits with what we want to do.”
The rookie representative says he scored a second key committee assignment by landing a seat on the House Agriculture Committee.
“In this district and across the state, agriculture as a whole is extremely important. Indiana ranks high in commodities and poultry and corn and multiple sectors. Indiana is a huge player in a lot of that and in the Eighth District agriculture is a huge economic driver,” said Messmer. “It turned out the House Ag Committee chairman wanted me to join them so even though it doesn’t happen often, I wound up on both.”
The new congress will be sworn in on Jan. 3 and will convene on Jan. 6.