From the Hartford Courant
Rep. Courtney Seeks $300 Million For Submarines
By JESSE A. HAMILTON, Washington Bureau Chief
May 8, 2008, 12:16 PM EDT
WASHINGTON —
Rep. Joe Courtney hopes to add $300 million to the budget for Virginia-class submarines, scoring an addition to a potential House spending plan on Thursday that might, in addition, move a planned increase in sub construction to 2010 instead of 2011.
The House's seapower subcommittee, which is responsible for crafting the budget authorization for buying Navy ships each year, passed its shipbuilding plan Thursday, including a unanimously passed amendment from Courtney to provide the additional $300 million for submarines. That amount is on top of the single submarine already planned for 2009.
Courtney, whose 2nd District includes sub builder Electric Boat in Groton, spent much of last year trying to change the Navy's plan that called for submarine construction to increase from one per year to two per year by 2012. The efforts concluded with extra money for subs and a plan to move the doubling of their construction a year closer, to 2011.
But the freshman congressman decided to keep it up this year. So this subcommittee's plan now calls for construction to be staggered -- increased to two in 2010, drop back to one in 2011, then back up to two a year indefinitely in 2012.
Electric Boat officials have spoken in recent years of their concerns about getting more work sooner because of pressure in their business to lay off workers because of low work loads. Their workers, they have said, are so specifically trained and qualified in submarine building that they would be difficult to replace. The construction of fast-attack submarines is now share evenly between Electric Boat and a yard in Virginia, so when the rate increases to two per year, the Groton facility will be producing one boat every year.
The subcommittee's authorization now moves to the House armed services committee. Then it passes to the entire House. But that's just one half of the budgeting process, which is mirrored on the Senate side. The Senate armed services committee has already passed its defense authorization that includes much less additional money -- $79 million -- for extra submarine construction.
Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
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