As president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national nonpartisan budget watchdog group, I am writing to call attention to the leadership of Rep. Jared Huffman to end a wasteful federal spending program.

Rep. Huffman, in a bipartisan effort with Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Roseville, offered an amendment to end a decades-old requirement to ship anthracite coal from northeastern Pennsylvania to heat several U.S. military facilities in Germany.

The program began on a much larger scale in 1961. Although its scope has narrowed over time, the requirement to ship coal more than 4,000 miles still existed until last year.

Once he learned of the wasteful program, Rep. Huffman acted quickly in 2015 to encourage the House to kill the plan.

His amendment was successful but, unfortunately, the congressional committee overseeing Pentagon spending put the same provision back in the defense appropriations bill for the coming fiscal year.

Rep. Huffman was not deterred, convincing even more members of Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — to join him in an overwhelming vote of 268-153.

This kind of bipartisan leadership is a rare thing in today’s divided Congress.

The constituents of the 2nd District of California should be proud of Rep. Huffman’s work on this common sense issue.

— Ryan Alexander, president, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Washington D.C.