The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2014 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill to provide $594.4 billion in funds for the Department of Defense (DoD). The bill includes an additional $100 million and report language for the Arleigh Burke destroyer program to fund a tenth ship in the DDG-51 multiyear procurement-a ship Bath Iron Works would build .
The bill also included funding for many other investments in Maine.
“The funding of another DDG-51 ship as provided in this measure and report language would result in additional savings for the taxpayers which have totaled more than $1.5 billion to date through the multi-year procurement contract. It would also allow the Navy to send another DDG-51 to sea that is capable of performing many roles and missions in support of our national defense,” said Senator Collins, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. “I am grateful to Chairman Durbin and Vice Chairman Cochran that the Defense Appropriations bill illustrates the importance the Senate places on this program and our nation’s Navy as a whole.”
Senator Collins was able to successfully appropriate funding for, among others, the following defense programs:
• $2.4 billion for the Navy’s DDG-51 program, including an additional $100 million to allow the Navy to put the tenth DDG-51 destroyer under contract with the funding included in this bill.
• $231 million for the DDG-1000 ships, which are built at Bath Iron Works.
The Fiscal Year 2014 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
[mappress] Press release, August 2, 2013