Ranking Member Courtney's Remarks on Seapower Portion of the NDAA

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee delivered the following remarks on the Seapower portion of the 2017 NDAA during consideration of the full bill on the House floor:

“I enthusiastically support the Seapower portion of the defense bill, which is a strong bipartisan boost to our security on, below, and above the seas. The Seapower Subcommittee worked hard this year examining the president’s budget, as well as the strategic maritime context we are supporting these programs in. We have determined the following: demand for our naval fleet is higher than ever and so is the strain on the force. A casual review of the force explains why. China’s navy is militarizing the South China Sea threatening good order and commerce on the world’s seaways completely in violation of maritime law, and Russia’s navy is recapitalizing its fleet, particularly its undersea fleet and operating at a level not seen since the Cold War. These are two examples of the up tempo challenges that the Navy faces every single day.

“In this strategic context, the Seapower portion of our bill builds on the work done by the Navy, the Obama administration and this Congress to put us on a path to a 308-ship navy within the next five years. That’s good -- but it’s clear we need to do more to ensure we have the capability to keep pace with the going and changing threats around the world. That’s why this bill adds three new ships to the seven ships in the president’s budget, a third littoral combat ship, funding to complete a third DDG 51 destroyer, and resources to add an additional amphibious ship.

“Our bill has another area of good bipartisan work is in the area of our undersea forces. Our bill not only sustains the two a year build rate our advance Virginia class submarines, but also includes a measure that I pushed for to continue that build rate through the 2020's to provide the undersea capabilities that our military leaders are pleading for.

“Our bill also fully funds the nation’s top strategic priority: the Ohio replacement submarine. We also continue our bipartisan work to strengthen the national sea based deterrence fund that will support this program outside of the regular shipbuilding account. We provide this fund with new authorities to save additional funds during the course of building the Ohio class program, perhaps as much as ten percent on components like missile tubes on top of the billions of savings that were shown to garner by CRS and the Congressional Budget Office.

“The bipartisan Seaower mark is a down payment on the additional naval capabilities and capacity that we will need to keep pace with the fast changing security challenges around the globe, and I’m confident that we'll emerge in the final enactment of the 2017 NDAA.”