THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300430
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Congressional committees are expected to complete work this week on recommendations for some $13 billion in additions to President Clinton's 1997 defense budget, with funds for a new attack submarine that would be built at Newport News Shipbuilding at the top of their priority list.
Prospects for a downpayment toward a new aircraft carrier, which also would be built at the Peninsula shipyard, are more doubtful however, congressional sources said Monday.
Some $500 million, most of it earmarked for a nuclear reactor and other ``long-lead'' components, is expected to be provided as the first installment toward purchase of a new sub that would be fully funded in 1999.
``I'm very confident that I will be able to get through the authorization'' for the sub funds, said Sen. John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Armed Services panel and its House equivalent, the National Security Committee, are working this week to ``mark up'' the administration's budget plan, rewriting the proposal for consideration on the House floor in May or June.
Warner and Virginia's other senator, Democrat Charles S. Robb, are both members of the Seapower Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, which will consider the sub plan in a meeting this afternoon.
There will be a similar meeting today of the military procurement subcommittee in the House, which includes local Democrat Norman Sisisky. The full National Security Committee, which includes Sisisky, Republican Herbert H. Bateman and Democrat Owen B. Pickett, is to consider the sub program on Wednesday.
Each sub in the new class is expected to cost more than $2.5 billion. The Navy hopes to build about 30 of the ships in all.
The Virginia lawmakers are pushing for the sub money to fully implement a deal they struck last year with the Pentagon and lawmakers from New England.
The arrangement calls for sub contractss to be divided between Electric Boat of Groton, Ct., and Newport News Shipbuilding. Electric Boat is to build the first sub in a new line beginning in 1998, and the shird ship in the line in 2000. Newport News is to get the second and fourth subs, in 1999 and 2001, with competition between the yards starting sometime after 2002.
While agreeing to the deal, the administration provided nothing for the 1999 submarine in its 1997 budget proposal. An appropriation is needed next year so that the reactor and other nuclear components will be ready when the ship is fully funded in 1999.
Two aircraft carriers, the Harry S Truman and the Ronald Reagan, already are under construction at Newport News. The next carrier, now known only as CVN-77, is not expected to be built until around 2001.
The Navy had been expected to ask for about $1 billion in 1998 for nuclear components for that ship. But prodded by Republicans to list its priorities for any additional money available this year, the service has been quietly pushing to get CVN-77 funding into the mix.
By paying for a reactor in 1997 and speeding up the project overall, the service is said to be claiming that it could save up to $1 billion on the final cost of the ship. Even with the savings, the carrier is expected to cost more than $5 billion. The ship will be the last in the Nimitz class of carriers.
Sources said the Navy's effort has put Virginia lawmakers and shipyard lobbyists in an uncomfortable position. While they'd like to secure the carrier funding, the legislators and the yard are said to be concerned about appearing overly greedy this year and triggering a backlash from Democrats and some Republican ``deficit hawks.''
Warner suggested Monday that ``there is a good deal of wisdom in initiating the carrier funding next fiscal year,'' when he hopes to be chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee. Warner will be in line for that post if he can win a tough re-election battle this year and if Republicans maintain control of the Senate. by CNB