The U.S. House Armed Services Committee passed the fiscal 2010 defense authorization act Wednesday with provisions supporting Virginia-class submarines, military construction at the Naval Submarine Base and local National Guardsmen.

It is early in the process, with the authorization bill headed to the floor of the House next week and the appropriations bill to be considered this summer.

The authorization act establishes the policy for funding that is allocated through the appropriations process.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, a member of the committee, requested the key provisions for southeastern Connecticut. They include:

n Virginia-class submarines: The bill authorizes the procurement of one submarine in 2010 and supports increasing production to two submarines a year in 2011.

n Ohio-class replacement program: The bill authorizes the president's request for $495 million to begin researching and developing the next-generation ballistic-missile program. Designers and engineers at Electric Boat in Groton would work on this program.

n Naval Submarine Base in Groton: $6.57 million would be used to construct a new storage facility for torpedoes.

n Common command and control system module, Electric Boat: $9 million would be used to begin developing this module for different classes of submarines.

n National Guard military technicians: An amendment would require the Defense Department to review the overtime compensation policy for military technicians. Dual-status military technicians, like those who work at the 1109th Aviation Classification Repair Activity Depot in Groton, receive time off for overtime hours worked, but some technicians find it difficult to use that time off because of their workloads.

n NR-1: An amendment would express support for preserving NR-1, the Navy's only nuclear-powered, deep-diving ocean engineering and research submarine, which was taken out of service last year, at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum in Groton.

J.GROGAN@THEDAY.COM