House Seapower Ranking Member Courtney Statement on Release of New Report on Strain of Navy-Marine Corps Fleet | Congressman Joe Courtney
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House Seapower Ranking Member Courtney Statement on Release of New Report on Strain of Navy-Marine Corps Fleet

November 18, 2015

Washington, D.C. – Representative Joe Courtney, Ranking Member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement on the release of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment’s new report, Deploying Beyond Their Means: America’s Navy and Marine Corps at a Tipping Point. He spoke today at the Navy League’s America’s Strength Campaign event highlighting the report.

“The new CSBA report released today underscores what we already see in the fleet today – continued high operating tempos and significant demands for Navy and Marine Corps presence are increasingly straining the fleet. And recent headlines – including the deployment of the USS Lassen to the South China Sea or the departure of the TRUMAN Strike Group for the Middle East for operations against ISIL – demonstrate that this demand will not decrease any time soon.”

“There is no easy answer – the fleet’s size today and the pressure it faces have been largely dictated by the decisions from years ago to throttle back investment in shipbuilding. We have taken steps on a bipartisan basis in recent years to reverse the trend and return to the path of a robust fleet, but it will take time, resources, and most importantly stability, in Navy plans and Congressional budgets to deliver to our ships the deferred maintenance they need and time to build the new and more capable ships we know we need. As Ranking Member of the Seapower Subcommittee, I will continue to keep working towards ensuring that we are doing all we can today to build the fleet we need today and in the future.”