A group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are urging the Navy to delay plans to cancel ship maintenance availabilities for the second half of fiscal 2013, asking for more time for Congress to resolve the budget stalemate behind the proposed cancellations.
Nine lawmakers sent a letter yesterday to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, citing the negative impact cancellations would have on fleet readiness.
“We respectfully request that the Navy delay the cancellation direction in order to provide Congress with an opportunity to resolve the ongoing budget impasse,” the letter said, warning that any cancellations will have a ripple effect on future planned availabilities and likely spark cost increases.
The letter was signed by representatives Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.), Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Robert Scott (D-Va.), Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii.), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and Michael Michaud (D-Maine). Crenshaw and Pingree are members of the House Appropriations Committee, while Rigell, Hanabusa, Peters, Hunter and Davis are members of the House Armed Services Committee.
The letter came days after the Navy announced it was delaying the mid-life refueling and overhaul of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), saying the aircraft carrier will remain docked at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia rather than sail this week to nearby Huntington Ingalls Industries’ [HII] Newport News Shipbuilding for the four-year availability.
Greenert issued an internal memo in late January instructing fleet commanders by Friday to notify contractors and cancel all private sector surface ship maintenance availabilities for the final six months of fiscal 2013, which runs through September.
The Navy has noted it is barred from beginning ship maintenance availabilities under the provisional spending measure approved by Congress known as a continuing resolution (CR), which keeps spending at roughly 2012 levels. The current CR runs through March, but the Navy is worried that without a proper appropriations bill, a CR could govern spending for the remainder of the fiscal year.