Contact: Jessica Smith, (202)228-5185
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Webb: Ship Maintenance Shortfall, Billions in Unfunded Priorities
Compel Retention of Aircraft Carrier in Norfolk
Warns of Adverse Impacts that Backlog could have on
Fleet Readiness & Shipyard Workers
Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) told the Department of Defense (DoD) today that the Navy’s $417 million shortfall in fiscal year 2009 funding for ship maintenance, coupled with unfunded budget requirements of $4.6 billion, provide a “compelling argument for the DoD to disapprove any Navy funding request for homeporting a nuclear powered aircraft carrier in Mayport, Florida.”
In a letter to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy, Webb said the level of unfunded maintenance could have “significant adverse impacts on near term fleet readiness and employment levels” in multiple homeports on the East and West Coasts. Webb also asked that early action be taken on the homeporting proposal.
“Given today’s extraordinary financial crisis, the Obama administration’s expressed call to reduce noncritical federal spending, and the compelling requirement to fund higher priority Navy budget requirements, the Navy’s homeporting proposal for Mayport is fiscally irresponsible,” Webb said.
Last year, the Navy identified $4.6 billion in fiscal year 2009 unfunded budget requirements. The service’s unfunded requirements for fiscal year 2010 will be made known when the Obama administration submits its defense budget request to Congress later this year.
During their Senate confirmation hearings in January, Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn and Under Secretary Flournoy committed to Senator Webb to review the Navy’s homeporting decision for Mayport. “From a policy or strategy perspective, taking a look at our global posture including our homeporting and basing structure is certainly going to be on the table and will be a part of the QDR [Quadrennial Defense Review] as we move forward,” said Flournoy.
The Navy’s current ship maintenance funding shortfall resulted from the service’s reliance on so-called emergency defense supplemental appropriations to fund its predictable, requirements. If required funding is not provided, fleet readiness will suffer and private ship repair companies will be obliged to send workers home.
Said Webb: “During the economic crisis at hand, such an approach is unconscionable.”
Senator Webb stressed in his letter that funding for routine ship maintenance should be included in the core budget: “The Navy’s reliance on emergency defense supplemental appropriations to fund routine ship maintenance in recent years begs for your reexamination.”
