Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are challenging the administration’s plan to cut back on shipbuilding even as the proposed Pentagon budget would zoom up by $48 billion to $379 billion.
"The trend in shipbuilding worsens in this budget," Rep. Ike Skelton, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a hearing Wednesday.
"The request for five new ships again falls well below replacement rates and continues the dangerous trend that will soon bring the United States to a 200-ship Navy — a level totally inadequate for the protection of sea lanes and other American interests," said Skelton, D-Mo.
Rumsfeld tried to pre-empt some criticism in appearances before the House and Senate Armed Services panels by saying in his opening remarks: "We clearly were not able to fund shipbuilding at replacement rates in 2003, and we must do that in the future."
The Navy’s four-year defense plan budgets five ships in 2004, seven in 2005, seven in 2006, and 10 in 2007.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said Clinton administration plans called for building 23 new ships from 2003 through 2005, compared with the Bush administration’s proposal for 17.
"Even with your increase in budget, the shipbuilding budget is really rather dramatically lower than it was even in the Clinton program, which had a significantly lower defense budget," said Kennedy, chairman of the Armed Services Committee’s sea power panel.
President Bush’s defense budget for the year that begins Oct. 1 would spend $8.6 billion on shipbuilding. The five ships would be a reduction from six this year, and Rumsfeld blamed contractor problems, the need to pay for work done previously in which the cost was underestimated, and Navy priorities.
The Navy calculated the cutback wouldn’t endanger the country because the fleet is relatively young, Rumsfeld said. The Navy felt it was more important now to correct shortfalls in munitions, spare parts and steaming hours, which the budget fully funds, he said.
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