Virginia Rep. Wittman and Washington Rep Kilmer Announce New Caucus Focused on Navy’s Public Shipyards

Representatives Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) and Derek Kilmer (D-WA-06) announced a new caucus focused on the Navy’s four active public shipyards on Friday. Other members of the Public Shipyard Caucus include Representatives Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) and Bobby Scott (D-VA-03).

“The Public Shipyard Caucus is the only congressional caucus focused exclusively on the nation’s public shipyards and serves as a venue to discuss public shipyard issues, increase stakeholder support for public shipyards, and raise awareness of their importance to Congress,” a Wittman press release states.

Wittman and Luria have been leading Virginia’s congressional delegation in pushing to keep ships and spending in Hampton Roads amid a shift towards the Navy’s west coast facilities.

“I am thrilled by the strides in recent years in support for the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Organization Program (SIOP); however, Congress must continue to embrace every opportunity to revitalize the Navy’s public shipyards. We cannot afford to be distracted from allocating the resources necessary to continue and accelerate the Navy’s plans to fund shipyard facilities, docks and dry docks, capital equipment improvements, and dredging,” Wittman said in the release, calling on President Biden’s administration to prioritize shipyards.

Other members of the caucus are from Hawaii, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, areas near the U.S.’ other public shipyards: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Washington, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Hawaii. The Coast Guard Yard in Maryland was not mentioned in Wittman’s release… (Excerpt from the Virginia Star)