Reps. Wittman, Luria Concerned About Biden Administration’s 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan

Representatives Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) and Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) are concerned that the Biden administration’s FY 2023 spending plan and an associated 30-year shipbuilding plan will increase risk. In a Wednesday hearing of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, Wittman and Luria questioned officials about the impact of the administration’s budget.

Wittman, the subcommittee’s ranking member, also submitted a scathing written statement to the official record, criticizing the shipbuilding plan and saying he would reject an “anemic shipbuilding request” that plans to retire vessels, seeks to not maintain the naval aviation plan, would “eviscerate our mine countermeasure warfighting capabilities,” “irreparably harm our nation’s ability to support future forcible entry options” by reducing amphibious forces, and would “waste significant taxpayer’s monies.”

Wittman said documents describing the shipbuilding plans are “insidious and lay bare the abject denial of President Biden’s constitutional obligation ‘to provide and maintain a Navy.’ It is almost as if this administration has completely forgotten that we are a maritime nation and that the entire basis of our economy, and our global norms, are based on a naval maritime capability aligned with these basic principles.”

“We need to wholly and utterly reject the administration’s request for shipbuilding and decommissioning of ships. We need to start from scratch with meeting our founding fathers’ constitutional obligations,” Wittman added later in the statement.

Wittman and Luria, along with other Virginia representatives, have expressed concerns about long-term plans to shift the amount of naval assets based in Virginia to West Coast bases.

In his written statement, Wittman criticized the administration’s plan to decommission 24 vessels and build eight ships in FY 2023.

“Despite the law requiring a 355 ship Navy, the administration proposes to reduce our 298 ships immediately to 285 ships. We don’t expand our naval capacity and capabilities by subtracting more than we add,” Wittman wrote… (Excerpt from the Virginia Star)