(Radio Iowa) – A Senate committee has scaled back a House plan to provide 200-thousand dollars in state tax money to launch the U-S-S Iowa, a nuclear-powered submarine that’s scheduled to join the Navy fleet later this year. Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee have voted to reduce the state contribution to 150-thousand — and half of that would be withdrawn from a state fund for veterans.

Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says veterans groups strongly oppose the move and it taints the excitement of having a new sub named in honor of our state.

Iowans who get any of the two dozen specialty license plates for veterans pay a fee that goes into the Iowa Veterans License Plate Fund. Senator Mark Lofgren, a Republican from Muscatine, says it doesn’t seem outrageous to use some of that money for the U-S-S Iowa.

Money in the Iowa Veterans License Plate Fund is distributed by the Iowa Commission on Veterans Affairs. The state commander of the V-F-W says the money in that fund should be used for veterans who live in Iowa, not on a christening ceremony or Iowa-themed furnishings for a submarine.