Ranking Member Courtney’s Statement on FY24 Defense Budget
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement after the Appropriations Committee released the six remaining FY24 spending bills, which included the defense budget.
“I enthusiastically support the investments included in the FY24 defense budget to fully-fund our submarine programs and bolster our submarine industrial base.
“The FY24 budget provides the first increment of funding for the second boat in the Columbia program and procurement of two Virginia-class submarines this fiscal year. It also delivers $241 million to invest in advanced capabilities for future blocks of Virginia-class submarines, as well as $322 million in research and development of the SSN(X) future attack submarine program, which will ensure the health and stability of the engineering and design workforce at Electric Boat. This is coupled with a $647 million investment in our submarine industrial base to support submarine suppliers, shipyard infrastructure, and workforce development initiatives.
“However, the budget also includes funding to procure critical components* for a Virginia-class submarine that the Navy recently announced it does not plan to purchase in FY25. This reenforces my colleagues’ and my concerns that the Navy is choosing to cut procurement for a boat that is not only partially built and paid for– but we are continuing to invest in.
“Just yesterday, the Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command reaffirmed during an Armed Services hearing that, given the PRC’s full-throttled production and procurement of boats, ‘we need to maintain [undersea] superiority, we need to maintain capacity, and we need to maintain the industrial base that supports it…because it allows us to be dominant.’ The FY24 investments in our submarine programs and submarine industrial base are no doubt critical to achieving that goal, but a stable, two-per-year submarine procurement rate is the real lynchpin to maintaining our undersea superiority.
“The budget also delivers $300 million in long-overdue security assistance for our ally Ukraine, supported by a large bipartisan majority. While this low level of recurring aid is helpful, the U.S. House should immediately pass the Ukraine supplemental that passed in the Senate 72-22 in February. Ukraine’s heroic efforts to defend their nation desperately need more military assistance.”
Background on Advance Procurement
*Each fiscal year, the defense budget includes funding for advanced procurement (AP) for long-lead time material production which allows the Navy to purchase certain materials that take longer to build for future boats, like propulsion equipment.
The FY24 defense budget includes $325 million in AP for a Virginia-class submarine that the Navy no longer plans to procure in FY25.
For a fact sheet on the defense budget, click here.