Republicans tee up short-term CR extending Pentagon funding until November
The continuing resolution does not include $3.9 billion requested by the White House for the Columbia-class submarine, but gives funding flexibility to other key programs.
The continuing resolution does not include $3.9 billion requested by the White House for the Columbia-class submarine, but gives funding flexibility to other key programs.
Congress has about a week to pass a stopgap funding bill by the end of Sept. 30, when FY 2024 ends and government money runs out.
"Now it [the Columbia-class submarine] is delayed by at least a year, leaving no more margin for failure for the rest of the decades-long procurement and delivery schedule," said Rep. Ken Calvert, chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
"The question is, how do you manage what you might call the transition from the legacy systems to modern systems?” John Plumb, assistant secretary of Defense for Space Policy, told reporters.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recently said the service is slightly behind its "accelerated" schedule goals for the shipbuilding program.
As officials described how they'll spend billions on America's nuclear arsenal and presented rosy outlooks, California's Rep. John Garamendi retorted, "The fact of the matter is every single one of these systems are behind schedule and over budget, every single one of them."
The new budget request seeks the second Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine and two Virginia-class boats, but lacks amphibs, a point sure to irk lawmakers.
"What is our true capability and capacity?" Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker said. "If we make the assumption that we're never going to get better, the answer is we don't have enough [shipyards]. But we're doing a lot of stuff" to improve the service's infrastructure in the meantime.
A five-sub buy would have the potential to save billions in taxpayer dollars if executed well.
The two reviews were largely welcomed by more hawkish commentators and criticized by supporters of more robust approaches to nuclear arms control — with the latter lamenting that Biden has walked away from campaign promises to reduce US reliance on nuclear weapons.
“The key strategic risk remains we might need the SSNs much earlier than the proposed schedule," Neil James, executive director of the non-partisan watchdog, the Australia Defence Association, said.
GAO found delays in more than half of the programs it studied. Also, 4-pound birds are a problem.
The Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, Columbia-class ballistic submarine and B-21 bomber could all face delays under a yearlong continuing resolution, service officials said.