"Current budget rules severely distort the shipbuilding accounts, and do not allow the Navy to budget in the most efficient way possible," said Senator Collins. "The use of advanced appropriations would help to better manage the ship construction budget, by creating a more realistic, rational, way of procuring ships. It will help the Navy and our nation's shipbuilders to better plan, and thus minimize the unnecessary costs that come from the erratic fluctuations in our ship procurement rate. In doing so, it will also let us maximize the number of ships that we can procure."
Senator Collins has stressed that it is crucial for the Navy not only to have the most capable ships, but also a sufficient numbers of ships to meet national security requirements. The 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review, prepared by the Department of Defense, stated that the Navy required a surface fleet of at least 310 ships to meet our national security requirements. Today, the fleet is below 300 ships. She has also pointed out that the Navy has admitted that it needs more DD(X) destroyers than what is currently included in the Administration's current budget request.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Collins has spoken with a number of Navy officials about this issue, and they have agreed with her that the current manner of funding ships is flawed. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England recently told Senator Collins during a hearing that the use of alternative funding mechanisms, like advance appropriations, for shipbuilding would "allow us to buy them better and on a better schedule and better for the industrial phase." Ten other federal departments and agencies are expected to use advanced appropriations in the FY 2006 budget.
The following is the text of a letter that Senator Collins wrote to the Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Ranking Member Kent Conrad (D-ND):
Dear Chairman Gregg and Senator Conrad:
The U.S. naval shipbuilding industrial base faces crisis. Increasingly, the Navy approaches requirements with budget targets as the primary consideration, rather than first determining national security needs followed by resource considerations. The best example of budget constraints driving military requirements can be found in the reduction in the number of DD(X) destroyers from twelve to five in the last fiscal year. This is particularly troubling because the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Clark, has testified that the military requirements have not changed the need for twelve DD(X)s.
As quantities of new ships decline, the industrial base will be hard-pressed to remain viable. The highly skilled craftspeople who build modern warships take years to develop their expertise, and they do not return once they leave the shipbuilding industry. The result is a situation in which the size of the fleet continues to decline, our industrial base shrinks to dangerous lows, and our national security is increasingly at risk.
The current funding policy is driving turbulence and inefficiencies into a shipbuilding program struggling to provide new capabilities to meet emerging threats. Navy shipbuilding is best managed fiscally like other U.S. government capital investment programs by adopting advance appropriations for our Navy shipbuilding program.
There are ten federal departments or agencies that use advanced appropriations in the FY 2006 budget. This full funding mechanism would add to the stability of the shipbuilding program and reduce program risk. As recently as this week, the Chief of Naval Operations told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "the bottom line is you can''t have the Navy of your dreams with the [funding] mechanisms that we''re using and have used for the last 15 years and something … has to be done. If this isn''t the perfect answer, I''m willing to look at any other option, and I''ve put forward split funding, I''ve put forward advanced appropriations and incremental appropriations in the OR&D program."
Therefore, I respectfully request advanced appropriations for shipbuilding be included in the FY 2006 Budget Resolution. I look forward to continue working with you on this important issue.
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