Efforts to spice up Pentagon funds might begin with Navy

Roger Wicker, who’s the Senate Armed Providers Committee’s high Republican, hails from Mississippi, the place Ingalls Shipbuilding cranks out destroyers, amphibious ships and Coast Guard cutters.

Additionally from Mississippi is Rep. Trent Kelly, a Republican who chairs the Home Armed Providers Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.

Maine is represented within the Senate not solely by Collins but additionally by Angus King, an unbiased who’s a senior member of the Senate Armed Providers Committee. 

That committee’s chairman, Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, represents quite a few shipyard employees within the Northeast, significantly these within the submarine enterprise. So, too, does Joe Courtney, D-Conn., who’s the rating member of the Home Armed Providers Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.  

Warships on horizon

The administration’s new funds, made public Monday, sought 9 so-called battle power ships: a Columbia class ballistic-missile submarine, two Virginia class assault subs, two destroyers, two frigates, a refueling oiler and a sub tender.