Approving Purchases of Littoral Combat Ships
Floor Speech
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Mr. WITTMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6494, a bill that would authorize procurement for the Littoral Combat Ship.
And I will start by thanking Chairman TAYLOR, who has been extraordinarily diligent in this effort in making sure that our Nation gets the best deal on LCS, knowing that there have been some hiccups in the past. He stood up and made sure this process was going to happen properly, that it was going to be the best value for our Navy and the best value for the United States. So I applaud the chairman for his leadership there. And also to Ranking Member AKIN who, alongside the chairman, made sure also that this process was going to happen properly and that the proper decisions were going to be made and that we were going to make the best decision on behalf of our Navy.
And as we all know, this legislation would amend the FY 2010 National Defense Authorization Act to authorize the procurement of 20 Littoral Combat Ships which are absolutely needed these days in our Navy. This bill would also allow the Navy to enter into one or more contracts and allow the Navy to conduct a competition for an additional shipyard for ship construction to be built to a design specification for that ship. That technical data package will belong to the United States, so if something doesn't go right with this two-ship acquisition, we have the opportunity to fix that and get it back on track.
Absent an NDAA, it is imperative to ensure that our Navy shipbuilding program remains on the right track. By procuring 20 Littoral Combat Ships, that gives our Navy the ability to increase its mission capability and project power throughout the littoral waterways around the globe.
We need to do everything we can to get Federal spending under control, and this bill does that. This bill, as Chairman TAYLOR says, cuts to the heart of reducing spending, gets us actually the same number, if not a little bit more, for $2 billion less. It is a good deal for this Nation. The thing we have to keep in mind in the future is looking at the operation and maintenance costs of two platforms, making sure they were holding the Navy firm to controlling costs there, both the training costs of multiple crews and the operation and maintenance costs. We have been assured by Under Secretary Stackley that that will happen. So I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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