{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases/graves-leads-call-fully-fund-lake-city-army-ammunition-plant", "Graves Leads Call to Fully Fund  Lake City Army Ammunition Plant", "2022-02-02", "2022", "2022-02", "Republican", "House", "MO", "Sam Graves", "G000546", "graves.house.gov", "graves", "https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06) led a letter urging House and Senate Defense Appropriations Committee Leaders to fully fund the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in the final appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.\n\n\u201cCutting funding for the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant would be devastating not just for our communities, but our country.\u201d said Graves. \u201cIt would cost hundreds of skilled craftsmen their good-paying jobs here in Missouri. They can\u2019t be replaced by just anyone off the street. If we lose these folks to other industries, it\u2019s going to make it extremely difficult to ramp production back up in the face of a crisis. That\u2019s particularly concerning given escalating tensions around the globe.\u201d\n\nThe Administration\u2019s FY 2022 budget proposed cutting small arms manufacturing funding by 30 percent, which could cost an estimated 500-700 jobs at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri. Congressman Graves worked hard to make sure those cuts were reversed in the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act. However, the Defense Appropriations Bill for FY2022 still needs to fully fund the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant at authorized levels to ensure these jobs remain in Missouri and production capacity can be ramped up to respond to future crises.\n\nThe full letter can be found here or below.\n\nFebruary 2, 2022\n\nDear Chair Tester, Ranking Member Shelby, Chair McCollum, and Ranking Member Calvert,\n\nAs you continue discussions with the Senate on a final Defense Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2022, we respectfully ask that you support the full amount authorized in S. 1605, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 for the small caliber Army ammunition accounts.\n\nThe President\u2019s fiscal year 2022 budget request includes a reduction to all the small arms ammunition accounts by about 30 percent, a roughly $56 million decrease across all accounts. This reduction will significantly impact our ground forces\u2019 readiness, as well as their ability to train and fight. At a time of great uncertainty with our adversaries becoming increasingly emboldened, we must maintain strong funding for these accounts to avoid hindering production capability.\n\nThe Army\u2019s production facility is at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) in Independence, Missouri. LCAAP produces small arms ammunition for all branches of the military and its workforce is made up of 1,700 highly skilled craftsmen, but the proposed budget request for FY22 could reduce this workforce by about 500 to 700 employees. Such reduction could cause the Army and defense industrial base to lose years of ammunition production expertise and it could take up to a year to rebuild this workforce. This would also be detrimental as the Army\u2019s seeks to field the Next Generation Squad Weapon and its new ammunition, which will be produced at LCAAP.\n\nThe bipartisan passed FY22 NDAA included increased funding for 5.56MM, 7.62MM and .50 CAL ammunition. Specifically,\n\n$79.89 million for 5.56MM ammunition, a $32.4 million increase above the President\u2019s Budget Request. (Account: Procurement of Ammunition, Army Small/Medium Cal Ammunition, CTG, 5.56MM, All Types)\n\n$101.926 million for 7.62MM ammunition, a $27.056 million increase above the President\u2019s Budget Request. (Account: Procurement of Ammunition, Army Small/Medium Cal Ammunition, CTG, 7.62MM, All Types)\n\n$58.116 million for .50 CAL ammunition, a $28.4 million increase above the President\u2019s Budget Request. (Account: Procurement of Ammunition, Army Small/Medium Cal Ammunition, CTG, .50 CAL, All Types)\n\nTo prevent disruptions to the warfighter\u2019s readiness, avoid a loss of production capability and maintain a highly skilled workforce at LCAAP, we respectfully ask that the House and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittees support the authorized funding levels in the FY22 NDAA signed into law by President Biden on December 27.\n\nThank you for all you do to support the readiness and strength of the warfighter. It is crucial that Congress ensure our servicemembers\u2019 ability to train and fight by providing adequate funding for small arms ammunition and guarantee the protection of LCAAP\u2019s production capabilities to provide this ammunition for the warfighter. We thank you for your attention to this important matter and look forward to working with you over the coming weeks.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:57:46Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases/graves-leads-call-fully-fund-lake-city-army-ammunition-plant"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9902501478791237, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}