On the recordMay 14, 2015
I thank the chairman for yielding. I rise as well in opposition to the Blumenauer amendment and echo the comments of the chairman and the ranking member. The national sea-based deterrence fund is crucial to the future of our national security. It provides space outside the shipbuilding fund for the most survivable piece of our national deterrence, a bill that last came due in the eighties and the Reagan defense buildup. These boats are absolutely essential. This is not just a Navy issue. As Secretary of Defense Carter has said, ``This is a national priority.'' The deterrence fund allows us to treat it accordingly and avoid pressuring the Navy out of badly needed investment in other ships and capabilities. Unless Congress acts, these boats will consume half of the projected shipbuilding funding for a decade, causing crippling shortages that would echo in our fleet for decades thereafter. Congress has already acknowledged these problems ahead, and last year, this body took a bipartisan, bicameral step, modeled on existing funding mechanisms to help. This amendment does nothing to address the fundamental challenges at stake and simply moves us backward in policy as time marches on. I urge this amendment's defeat.
