THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220480
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
The Navy's future submarine program and the jobs of thousands of shipbuilders in Hampton Roads and Connecticut were on the line Thursday night as a pair of House and Senate conference committees tried to complete work on a defense budget for 1996.
Most attention was focused on members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, who were expected to reach agreement by today on a compromise plan to complete the third and last ship in the Seawolf line of attack subs and develop a new generation of undersea boats.
The sub work would be divided between Newport News Shipbuilding and Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., the nation's only builders of nuclear-powered ships.
The Clinton administration has requested about $3 billion for sub construction, half to complete the final Seawolf at Electric Boat and half to begin work on a successor line that would begin at the Connecticut yard in 1998. Newport News would be allowed to compete for contracts on subs after that.
But neither house signed on to that program. Instead, the House proposed scrapping the third Seawolf and pouring more than $1.5 billion into research on potential technology advances in future subs.
The Senate, under a plan put together principally by Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, wants to build the last Seawolf, direct the first successor sub to Electric Boat in 1998 and give a second sub in the new line to Newport News in 1999.
Thursday's appropriations conference was one of two concerning the submarines. It involved lawmakers assigned to review spending programs and decide on specific cash outlays.
A conference of ``authorizers,'' who make policy decisions governing programs funded by the appropriators, also met Thursday but reportedly was further from agreement. Sources said that if the appropriators complete work first, as seems likely, and decide to provide funds for both the Seawolf and the new submarine, the authorizers probably would approve both programs as well.
Newport News, which also builds aircraft carriers, this spring christened its last submarine and says it needs more work soon if it is to remain in the sub business; Electric Boat, which builds only subs, also is running out of work and says it will be forced to close unless the last Seawolf is approved.
The two yards squabbled this spring over Newport News' demand that it be allowed to compete for sub contracts once the Seawolf program ends. The Virginia yard contends it could do the work more cheaply than Electric Boat.
Both conference committees are considering not only the submarines but a variety of other disputes between the House and Senate over subjects ranging from construction of additional B-2 ``stealth'' bombers to whether military personnel stationed overseas can obtain abortions at hospitals on U.S. bases. by CNB