Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 8070. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution mandates that Congress shall provide and maintain a Navy. The Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee's work clearly met that mandate, thanks in large part to the great leadership of my friend and chair of the subcommittee, Trent Kelly. The biggest challenge our subcommittee faced stemmed from the Navy's proposal to eliminate a Virginia-class submarine from the FY25 budget. This is a sharp deviation from the two-per-year procurement rate Congress has authorized and funded for the last 13 years and, coming on the heels of last December's passage of AUKUS authorities to sell three submarines to Australia, screamed out for the subcommittee to exercise its constitutional duty of review and oversight. First, our analysis found that the Navy's attempt to shield supply chain vendors from the impact of a cut falls short. It leaves out hundreds of critical suppliers whose investment in on-time deliveries has been identified as the number one strategy to reduce construction delays. For these suppliers, cutting procurement means cutting orders for their business. That is a cure that worsens the problem. It doesn't fix it. Our professional staff confirmed that the Navy's plan needs an additional $1 billion to achieve its stated goal of avoiding vendor instability and hesitancy. Mr.…”