U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, issued a statement Friday noting that President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year requests nearly $12 billion for submarine development and construction, “the largest investment in our undersea fleet since the 1980s.”

Biden’s first defense budget totals $715 billion for the Pentagon, an $11 billion increase over the current spending plan.

“In contrast to last year’s budget, our undersea programs are being fully funded from the start,” said Courtney, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces. “For example, following my subcommittee’s bipartisan reversal last year of the Trump administration's reckless cut of the Virginia-class program, President Biden’s budget supports a continued, stable two-per-year production cadence, continued investment in the Columbia-class construction, and long overdue private-sector submarine maintenance projects.”

The work is essential to Electric Boat, the Groton-based shipbuilder that currently employs about 17,500 workers.

Courtney said the president’s shipbuilding budget reflects the goal of maintaining U.S. military strength relative to China. “Today, the United States is unmatched in the undersea domain, but with an aging, shrinking fleet we risk losing that key tool of deterrence,” he said. “The shipbuilding budget protects that priority far better than what we saw in the last president’s budget submission in February 2020.”

According to Courtney, the president’s budget request for submarines includes $6.4 billion for two Virginia-class submarines and advanced procurement for future submarines; $4.6 billion to continue work on the Columbia-class submarine, including fully funding a construction contract awarded last year to Electric Boat; and $852 million in research and development for the Columbia- and Virginia-class programs.