Washington Report

Lawmakers Gird for Renewed Deepwater Funding Battle

As lawmakers return from summer recess this month, House and Senate conferees are preparing to spar over funding for the Coast Guard’s Deepwater modernization program in fiscal 2006.

Capitol Hill sources said the service’s budgetary problems in the House may be related to good old-fashioned horse trading, rather than any deficiencies with Deepwater or reluctance of the Coast Guard to produce supporting information requested by Congress.

The estimated $24 billion Deepwater effort is aimed at replacing the Coast Guard’s aging cutter fleet and aircraft with more technologically advanced ships, planes and helicopters during the next 20-25 years. The program’s funding is one of a handful of issues that stalled conferees in July as they worked to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations Act.

The Senate version of the bill, backed by Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, would provide $906 million for Deepwater.

But in the House, Kentucky Republican Rep. Hal Rogers, chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, slashed the president’s $966 million request for Deepwater to only $500 million.

Rogers repeatedly complained that the Coast Guard failed to communicate adequately with Congress and has not explained, to his satisfaction, how the Deepwater program would meet the demands of the global fight against terrorism or justify planned expenditures over the life of the program.

But while he has been a vocal critic of Deepwater during the past several months, congressional sources said the reason for the House-Senate funding disparity may be more parochial, with Rogers and other House members using Deepwater funding to leverage money for pet projects from Cochran, who supports Deepwater and the jobs it will provide to constituents in his home state.

Cochran has spoken on more than one occasion with Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., his counterpart on the House Appropriations Committee, about Deepwater funding to urge him to move closer to the Senate’s figure for the program, according to a congressional source.

Congressional aides said Lewis is expected to move closer to the Senate’s $906 million for Deepwater, while Rogers’ support will be more difficult to win.

Despite Rogers’ criticism of the Homeland Security Department, and the Coast Guard in particular, congressional aides said the agency has been reasonably forthcoming with Senate lawmakers.

In the meantime, congressional aides said House and Senate staff members have been working through the August break to resolve differences in the Homeland Security bill.

Ultimately, Cochran’s influence as Senate Appropriations Committee chairman is expected to prevail in urging Rogers and other House lawmakers to move closer to the president’s budget request for Deepwater, one congressional aide said.

Some in Congress Search For DD(X) Alternatives

The Navy’s DD(X) next-generation destroyer program will likely be the subject of heated debate this month when lawmakers attempt to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill.

Although members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are largely supportive of the surface combatant, House lawmakers, including Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., chairman of the House Armed Services Projection Forces Subcommittee, are looking at alternatives in an effort to rein in rising costs — now pegged at about $2.5 billion per ship. During a July subcommittee hearing, Bartlett noted that the Navy may ultimately buy just five of the ships, rather than the planned eight to 12, and questioned whether the service should consider less costly options.

Still others have suggested the Navy scrap the DD(X) altogether and incorporate its new technologies into the hull of future Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

But the DD(X) has a number of powerful proponents in the Senate, including Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is unlikely to let the program go down without a fight.

Last month, the Pentagon agreed to release $20 million in funds for advance design work on the DD(X) at Bath Iron Works in her home state and Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. — part of an $84.4 million spending package Collins secured in last year’s defense bill.

Congressional Protection For the Joint Strike Fighter

Reports that the Pentagon is considering slashing funds for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as part of its forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) have sent lawmakers scrambling to protect the program, as well as the Air Force’s controversial F/A-22 Raptor tactical aircraft.

House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., joined Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger last month in publicly vowing to defend both planes from any effort to cut or eliminate their funding. Lockheed Martin Corp. is planning to build more than 2,400 F-35s for the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy.

Details of the QDR are not expected before Sept. 30, but Hunter and other lawmakers who support both fighter programs could use the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill to require legislative support for the planes, according to congressional aides.

Three-Way Move Would Bolster Cherry Point

North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones is pushing a plan to move 74 Marine Corps F/A-18 fighters to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in his home state following a recent decision by the independent Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) to add Virginia’s Naval Air Station Oceana to the Pentagon’s 2005 base closure list.

The commission was expected to decide on Oceana’s fate in late August. But in letter sent last month to BRAC Chairman Anthony Principi, Jones suggested the panel consider moving jets currently stationed at NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C., and subsequently move its F/A-18s to Cherry Point.

In his letter, Jones noted that Beaufort and Cherry Point would be more practical and efficient than moving the jets to other states, such as Texas and Georgia. Florida lawmakers are also lobbying to move Oceana’s jets to their state with a proposal to reopen Cecil Field in Jacksonville, closed during a previous BRAC round.

Floridians Continue Fight For Kennedy, Mayport

Members of Florida’s congressional delegation continue to push proposals to save the USS John F. Kennedy from decommissioning and to make the state’s Mayport Naval Station a nuclear-capable facility for aircraft carriers.

Last month, Rep. Ander Crenshaw and Sen. Mel Martinez, both Republicans, toured Mayport in a show of support for the base’s future, which is largely dependent on the Kennedy. The aging carrier was saved from decommissioning, at least for this year, through a proposal backed by Crenshaw, Martinez and Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson that required the Navy to keep 12 aircraft carriers in its fleet.

The Navy wanted to decommission the Kennedy in an effort to save $1.2 billion during the next six years. The ship is one of two non-nuclear carriers in the fleet, and will likely be decommissioned next year, leaving Mayport without a carrier. It would have to be converted to a nuclear-capable facility to accommodate another carrier.

Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, supported the 12-carrier proposal. But he has stopped short of backing the effort to make Mayport nuclear-capable, as such a move would likely mean a Virginia-based carrier would be sent to Florida.

Reporting by Amy Klamper, Seapower Correspondent.