The Virginia-class attack submarine USS North Dakota.
WASHINGTON: The gigantic $2.3 trillion spending package Congress is rushing to pass before midnight includes $696 billion for the Pentagon, shaving about $2 billion off Trump’s original request for the military, but shifting an impressive $4 billion to the Navy’s procurement accounts.
The big addition to the Navy budget adds a Virginia-class sub sought by the Navy for $2.1 billion, and nine more P-8A Poseidon aircraft for $1.6 billion.
So, Congress cut $2 billion from the administration’s overall request while taking money from elsewhere in the defense budget to plump up the Navy accounts. With the rush to pass a bill by this evening, few details were available about who did what to whom, or why.
“The Trump Administration’s shipbuilding budget request would have robbed an entire submarine from the Navy’s toolbox,” Rep. Joe Courtney, Chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, said. The loss of the second sub would have “undermined the workforce not just at Electric Boat but in countless manufacturing shops across our country,” he added.
Included in the NDAA passed by both houses of Congress earlier this month — which remains on the president’s desk awaiting his promised veto — the money for the second sub joined adds for advanced procurement money so the Navy can continue constructing two submarines each year. The Navy only asked for a single Virginia-class submarine in its ‘21 budget request and placed the second ship on its annual unfunded wish list.
Monday’s compromise bill also adds 17 F-35s to the administration’s request, including 60 F-35As, 10 F-35Bs, and 26 F-35Cs for a price tag of $9.6 billion, along with more Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters, and six more V-22 aircraft.
More significantly perhaps, Congress also added $60 million to the Army’s long-range hypersonic weapon, bringing the total to $861 million, and added $88.1 million to the request for the Army’s mid-range missile development.
For the Pentagon, the bill represents a $2.6 billion increase over the 2020 enacted budget, yet comes in at $2.1 billion less than the Trump administration’s 2021 request.
That money is tucked amid $1.4 trillion in federal government spending along with another $900 billion in coronavirus relief, which will continue to reimburse federal contractors under Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
“The American people expect us to do our job,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, “and after many months of work on this legislation, I am hopeful we can swiftly advance the bipartisan package through Congress and on to the President’s desk. Funding the government, including our Armed Forces, is our fundamental responsibility.”
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