{"id":14116,"date":"2020-02-11T02:36:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T02:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/02\/11\/courtney-trump-plan-to-cut-sub-production-dead-on-arrival\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:58:36","slug":"courtney-trump-plan-to-cut-sub-production-dead-on-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/02\/11\/courtney-trump-plan-to-cut-sub-production-dead-on-arrival\/","title":{"rendered":"Courtney: Trump plan to cut sub production \u2018dead on arrival\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HARTFORD, Conn. \u2014 A key Connecticut congressman said Monday that President Donald Trump\u2019s proposal to reduce funding for building Virginia-class submarines<\/a> is \u201cdead on arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney<\/a>, whose district includes the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard<\/a> in Groton, said the $19.9 billion allocated in Trump\u2019s $4.8 trillion budget plan is nearly 17 percent lower than current funding levels and is proposing to build the fewest number of \u201ccombatant vessels\u201d for the U.S. Navy in a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This weak, pathetic request for eight ships \u2014 of which two are tugboats \u2014 is not only fewer ships than 2020, but fewer ships than the Navy told us last year it planned for 2021,” said Courtney, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I can say with complete certainty that, like so much of the rest of the President’s budget, it is dead on arrival,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtney said experts have warned Congress year after year about the need for greater submarine capabilities, as China and Russia increase their undersea activity and the American fleet faces an impending 20 percent reduction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s why we worked so hard to achieve and sustain the two-a-year build rate since 2011,” Courtney said. “Deviating from that plan now makes no sense, and I am confident we will address this incoherent decision in the 2021 defense bill.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t