
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s proposed COVID-19 pandemic relief bill includes $2.2 billion for Navy shipbuilding, among other Navy items. The shipbuilding funds would be available through September 2024 and would cover $1.45 billion for four “expeditionary medical ships”, $260 million for one Austal USA-built EPF expeditionary fast transport ship, and $250 million for the surface combatant supplier base program. The bill specified these funds are “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.” This bill was first…