THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310411
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 30 lines
Congress is poised to give final approval to a submarine construction plan that will keep Newport News Shipbuilding in the sub business with a $701 million down payment next year toward a boat that will be built at the yard beginning in 1999.
The funds are included in a 1997 defense authorization bill agreed to Tuesday by House and Senate conferees.
``This is the final chapter,'' said an exultant Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., in a long struggle ``to reverse President Clinton on his former decision'' to build all future subs at Electric Boat of Groton, Conn.
Clinton and the Navy tried to shift all sub work to Electric Boat near the outset of his administration. But Warner, Sen. Charles S. Robb and Reps. Herbert H. Bateman of Newport News and Norman Sisisky of Petersburg have led a two-year fight to get the Peninsula yard a slice of the work on a new generation of attack subs being designed in Groton.
Under a deal crafted last year, each yard will get two of the first four subs, with competition beginning after 2002. The first sub is to be built beginning in 1998 in Groton; Newport News will get the second ship in 1999.
But the administration provided no money in its 1997 budget plan for early work on the 1999 sub, putting the program at risk. The House added $504 million and the Senate $701 million before the conferees settled on the higher figure. by CNB