National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the revised defense bill, which restores the strong, bipartisan tradition of the House Armed Services Committee. In particular, the Seapower portion expands shipbuilding to ensure that today our Nation is building the ships we need tomorrow.

The bill authorizes over $17 billion for construction of nine new ships, including two attack subs, two destroyers, three littoral ships, a new oiler, and completion of an LPD amphib. In addition, it continues work on a new carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and overhaul of one of our current carriers.

In this bill, we are providing the resources to keep our Navy on track to build a force of over 300 ships. This progress stands in stark contrast to where we were nearly a decade ago, building only four or five ships a year, a critical mistake which decimated the size of our fleet.

The bill also includes the National Sea Based Deterrence Fund to allow the Navy to build new ballistic subs without suffocating the rest of Navy shipbuilding. To be clear, this program is not about building one submarine class. It is about making sure that the Navy and our Nation have the full range of ships and submarines needed in the future.

Building on our work to start the fund last year, the bill today adds to the range of authorities the Navy can use to design and build ballistic subs in the most cost-effective way. Just last week, the nonpartisan CBO looked at the Seapower Subcommittee initiative and found that, if we ``funded the purchase of the Ohio replacement submarines through the National Sea Based Deterrence Fund ..... the Navy could potentially save several hundred million dollars per submarine.''

That is the kind of thoughtful, bipartisan work that this bill represents.

I urge support of the revised NDAA.

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