Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver Reauthorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, as ranking member of Seapower, I thank all of its members for their input crafting this year's National Defense Authorization Act. I also salute my friend and outstanding chairman of the subcommittee, Trent Kelly, for his work crafting our bipartisan mark. I have a larger written statement which details our work, which I will submit for the Record, and I will use my time today on the issue which consumed the bulk of our time, namely the Virginia-class attack submarine program.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. attack submarine fleet stands as our unmatched strategic advantage against any adversary across the globe. There is overwhelming consensus in Congress, Navy, and industry that we need to expand output for our own fleet and to satisfy our Nation's commitments to the AUKUS security agreement. Despite the slowdown caused by COVID, there are promising signs of the industry's recovery.

In 2024, the Navy commissioned the USS New Jersey, the 23rd Virginia sub, and will receive delivery of the USS Iowa next week. Next year, the Navy will take delivery of the USS Massachusetts and USS Idaho, the 25th and 26th boats in the class.

This bill recognizes this progress and rejects the Navy's woefully inadequate budget request, which would undermine procurement stability that is essential to growing the program's supply chain.

Simply put, to meet our strategic goals, we have no other choice than to move forward with a strong demand signal. Final language in this bill uses incremental authority to fund a second Virginia submarine and provides additional authorities that will allow shipyards to boost wages, a critical step to increase recruitment and retention among the metal trades workforce.

This is not pie in the sky. Indeed, just last month, OMB and the Navy belatedly acknowledged our committee's stance and sent over a supplemental request to Congress of nearly $6 billion for the Virginia- class submarine program. It is our hope that, with this bill and the supplemental request, the Navy and industry can achieve an even higher production cadence and execute the long overdue next block contract for the program.

This bill truly carries out our constitutional duty in Article 1, Section 8, ``to provide and maintain a Navy.''

I thank our subcommittee staff, Phil MacNaughton, Ian Bennitt, Kelly Goggin, Kyle Noyes, and Ethan Pelissier, for their work in crafting this product.

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