By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Veteran Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has announced he will not seek re-election.
  
The New Jersey Republican was facing his first competitive re-election race in decades and joins a growing roster of GOP veterans who are heading for the exits.
  
Frelinghuysen said in a statement that he was proud of his efforts to work in a bipartisan manner to advance the annual spending bills that make up almost one-third of the federal budget
  
Frelinghuysen was first elected in the 1994 GOP wave but cut a more moderate profile during more than two decades in the House.
  
He said, "my deepest devotion has been to supporting our Armed Forces, all volunteers, and their families, here and abroad."