Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member of the subcommittee, with whom I feel very privileged to work, for allowing me this time. I rise tonight in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. Chair, first I want to say, I have the utmost respect for the many sponsors of this amendment, and particularly Mr. Wittman and Mr. Courtney. They have shown tremendous bipartisan support and leadership in their tireless support of the Navy. They are excellent in their roles on their committees, and I consider them both great colleagues and friends.

However, this amendment is the wrong way to support our Navy. The amendment would cut $1 billion in funding from a variety of extremely important Navy and Air Force programs to fund advanced procurement for two Virginia-class submarines.

While they have made an excellent case about how important strategically those submarines are--and I agree with them on that--the problem is that one of them will be the DDG 51 program, which is supported at Bath Iron Works.

I am proud to be from Maine and to have Bath Iron Works and their excellent workforce in my district. The men and women of Bath Iron Works have been proving the adage ``Bath Built is Best Built'' for decades, and I oppose any efforts to cut from the DDG 51 program.

My colleagues have said that this amendment is funded by potential multiyear procurement savings in future years in the targeted the programs and, therefore, we should take that funding from these programs now. But the rationale ignores critical military and defense needs and the budgets that have been agreed upon.

The amendment will abandon several agreed-upon key national defense priorities, including increasing the ships in our Navy, a critical priority. Ships that I am proud to say are being manufactured, designed, and engineered by many hardworking men and women in my district.

Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

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