[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12087]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROGER F. WICKER

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 2002

  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the chairman and the 
ranking member for producing this bipartisan legislation which will 
support our troops, modernize our military, and ensure that we are 
prepared to win the war on terrorism. I support this legislation, but 
feel it is appropriate that I discuss one unfunded issue that is 
vitally important to the future of our military. The President's Budget 
appropriately requests continued funding of the LHD-8 Amphibious 
Assault Ship. Unfortunately, this bill did not fund the requested $243 
million necessary to continue procurement of this ship.
  Our Navy's LHA-1 class ``Big Deck'' Amphibious Assault Ships are at 
the end of their service life. Navy studies indicate a requirement for 
twelve Big Deck Amphibious Assault Ships and must procure replacements 
for the older ships to sustain this requirement. The past four fiscal 
years, Congress has recognized this need by providing over $1 billion 
for advanced procurement, detail design, and construction of a new LHD-
1 class ship. Congress authorized the Secretary of the Navy to enter 
into a contract for the construction and early delivery of this ship, 
the LHD-8, providing that it ``shall be funded on an incremental 
basis.''
  The LHD-8 is being procured under a fixed price construction 
contract, entered into by the government and the shipbuilder in good 
faith based on the assumption that annual government funding increments 
would always stay ahead of the expenditure curve. This would allow the 
parties to plan and execute design and construction without concern for 
interference resulting from funding shortfalls. The loss of FY03 
funding would violate the precepts of good faith contracting, which is 
essential for many defense procurement programs.
  Mr. Chairman, failure to appropriate the $243 million requested by 
the President would cause several negative repercussions, including 
severe economic impacts in my state of Mississippi. The potential for 
the Navy to issue a ``stop-work'' order on this project due to funding 
uncertainty could cause a job loss in the shipbuilding industry alone 
of over 1,500 jobs. If funding were delayed even one year, delivery of 
this military asset would be pushed back from FY07 to FY08, causing an 
additional cost to the taxpayers of approximately $129 million.
  It is my hope that throughout the consideration of the bill, the 
Chairman and Committee can provide the resources necessary to keep this 
project on the contracted schedule.

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