House passes bill that doesn't include more funds for sub production boost
The House on Thursday passed a spending bill that authorizes the Navy to build up to 13 Virginia-class attack submarines, but does not include additional funding for boosting production.
The $788 billion spending package, approved largely on party lines by a vote of 235 to 192, includes funding for the defense department, the legislative branch, veterans affairs and energy and water development.
The money for the Virginia submarine program included in the bill would cover the last two Virginia submarines in Block IV, as well as advance procurement of materials needed to build future submarines.
The contract for Block IV included 10 submarines for $17.6 billion over a five-year period. Electric Boat and Newport News in Virginia have built two Virginia submarines a year since 2011.
Initially, the spending bill passed Thursday left blank the number of submarines the Navy could buy in Block V. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, whose district includes EB, introduced an amendment, which was included in the bill, explicitly calling for 13 submarines in Block V. That would mean building three attack submarines in some years.
"That sends a good signal certainly that as a concept and a policy it has strong support," he said. He worried that by leaving the number blank, it would not have sent a strong enough signal to the submarine industrial base that Congress was serious about the uptick in production.
But no corresponding boost in funding was included in the bill for that ramp-up.
Courtney voted against the bill, which he said had a "ton of other problems," including $1.6 billion for the proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, one of President Donald Trump's key campaign promises. That amount is considered a down payment for the wall, some lawmakers said.
"While billed as a security package, the bill lacks a single dollar for agencies like the Coast Guard while funding Trump's misguided border wall," Courtney said in a statement after the vote.
The bill also exceeds defense budget caps by $72 billion, according to Courtney's office.
The spending package includes less funding for submarine programs than is included in the defense authorization bill that the House passed earlier this month. The authorization bill, which sets the policies and guidelines for defense spending, includes $6.2 billion for the Virginia program whereas the defense spending package includes only $5.2 billion.
Courtney sought to close the gap by securing additional funding for the Virginia program. His amendment to include $954 million more in advance procurement funding that would go toward buying materials in advance did not make it to the House floor for discussion. Courtney wanted to take the $954 million out of a controversial $29 billion fund created under the funding package, formally known as the National Defense Restoration Fund, that the secretary of defense would have sole discretion over. The heads of the House Appropriations Committee, Courtney said, denied all proposals to divert money from the fund.
"It's totally unprecedented to have Congress concede the power of the purse that radically. ... [Secretary of Defense Jim] Mattis is an incredibly impressive guy but no one should have that power," Courtney said.
The fund won't necessarily stay intact. The Senate has to pass its own version of the spending bill. Differences between the two bills will have to be reconciled, and both chambers will have to vote on the final version.
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