Richard Shelby: “You concluded that you need 355 ships. Can you explain how this budget request supports the Navy's requirement to get to…”

I am concerned about this--what this communicates to both our allies and our adversaries.

Regrettably, this was all predictable and avoidable.

As Senator Shelby at our Senate testimony hearing last March pointed out to us, we must maintain what we have before we can build new, and I think he hits the mark head-on.

I am deeply concerned, however, that the administration's failure to direct the appropriate resources to the crisis at the southern border has resulted in shifting the burden to the Guard.