U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, is among a group of congressional lawmakers who've been picked to negotiate a final version of a bill authorizing funding for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2020.

Courtney chairs the House Armed Services Committee's Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, which makes key decisions about Navy spending. The bill would authorize billions of dollars for Connecticut, home to several big defense contractors including submarine builder Electric Boat, which is in Courtney's district.

"In my first year as Chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, we worked hard to produce a bipartisan bill that carried forward some of the most important priorities for our armed forces and our servicemembers, and for eastern Connecticut," Courtney said in a statement. "I'm proud of what we accomplished in the House-passed NDAA, and as we move into conference to reconcile differences between our bill and the Senate's version, I'll keep working to find bipartisan support for these priorities to ensure that our region is well represented in the final product."