GE jet engine survives House

The engine program — with hundreds of Bay State jobs at stake — has long been backed by the Massachusetts congressional delegation.

“It shows you that this is what it takes to kill a program at the Pentagon,’’ said Laura Peterson, a senior policy analyst for the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It’s kind of ridiculous that there is such an intense battle being waged over something that the Department of Defense says it doesn’t want.’’

Obama’s threat over the backup F-35 engine has attracted attention on Capitol Hill because of a high-profile, high-cost lobbying battle between defense giants over its future. Pratt & Whitney, which is making the jet’s primary engine, has worked to kill GE’s project and nearly succeeded in eliminating it when many cost-conscious GOP freshman in the House voted to cut funding earlier this year.

After the Pentagon terminated the contract last month, GE and its partner, Rolls-Royce, pledged to fund further development themselves.

US Representative John F. Tierney, a Democrat whose district includes Lynn, called GE’s new arrangement of self-financing “a creative approach to funding weapons systems.’’

“With the GE team stepping forward to finance its work on the F-35 alternate engine program, the benefits of competition in contracting can be expected to continue for the coming fiscal year,’’ he said in a statement.

Despite GE’s pledge to pay for continued development, Obama still opposes the measure because it leaves the door open for future taxpayer-supported development and acquisition under certain conditions in the future.