{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://trentkelly.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5329", "Miss. Delegation Requests Administration Restore Second Destroyer to Budget\n\nJune 10, 2021 | Posted in Press Releases\n\n\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., with U.S. Representatives Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., Trent Kelly, R-Miss., and Michael Guest, R-Miss., have sent President Biden a letter opposing his recent budget request for the U.S. Navy, which would reduce the number of ships in the fleet and cut a destroyer from the Navy\u2019s\u2026 Read more \u00bb", "2021-06-10", "2021", "2021-06", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Trent Kelly", "K000388", "trentkelly.house.gov", "trentkelly", "https://trentkelly.house.gov/newsroom/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., with U.S. Representatives Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., Trent Kelly, R-Miss., and Michael Guest, R-Miss., have sent President Biden a letter opposing his recent budget request for the U.S. Navy, which would reduce the number of ships in the fleet and cut a destroyer from the Navy\u2019s procurement plan for Fiscal Year 2022.\n\n\u201cWe were deeply troubled by the shipbuilding portion of the Navy\u2019s recently released budget request for Fiscal Year 2022, which reduced the number of planned ships from 12 to just eight. This sends the exact wrong message to our global competitors\u2014particularly China, which now boasts the world\u2019s largest Navy fleet and is continuing to build modern warships at a breakneck pace,\u201d the members wrote.\n\nIn 2018, the Navy embarked on a five-year contract to procure a minimum of 10 Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 Flight III destroyers, which are built in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Bath, Maine. The President\u2019s budget request would procure only one destroyer, down from the planned rate of two. The lawmakers emphasized that this would have adverse consequences to both the shipbuilding industry and its thousands of employees.\n\n\u201cThere is simply no shortcut to building the naval fleet that America needs. We urge you to intervene by restoring a second destroyer to the budget request and prioritizing reaching a 355-ship fleet,\u201d the lawmakers concluded.\n\nDear Mr. President:\n\nWe were deeply troubled by the shipbuilding portion of the Navy's recently released budget request for Fiscal Year 2022, which reduced the number of planned ships from 12 to just eight. This sends the exact wrong message to our global competitors-particularly China, which now boasts the world's largest Navy fleet and is continuing to build modem warships at a breakneck pace.\n\nIn your address to Congress last month, you declared, \"We're in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We're at a great inflection point in history... We have to compete more strenuously than we have.\" Seapower is the most relevant currency in the Western Pacific. Losing more Navy power relative to China would result in the loss of our ability to deter Chinese aggression against our regional partners and Beijing's disregard for maritime rule of law.\n\nThe most alarming aspect of the Navy's budget request is the planned reduction from two to a single Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 Flight ID destroyer. The DDG-51 class is by far the most successful warship program in modern history, with an unmatched ability to project power at sea. Other recent shipbuilding programs have been plagued by cost overruns, production delays, and immature technology, yet production of Arleigh Burke destroyers remains reliable and efficient. Recognizing this, the Navy in 2018 entered into a five\u00ad year multiyear contract that authorized procurement of a minimum of 10 destroyers. Our nation's shrinking shipbuilding industry relies on consistent orders to establish predictable,serial production rates. Removing a destroyer from the planned FY 2022 build rate would have adverse consequences to both the industry and its many thousands of employees.\n\nCongress stands committed to building a Navy that can deter aggression and, when necessary, fight and win wars. Since 2017, it has been ''the policy of the United States to have available, as soon as practicable, not fewer than 355 battle force ships (Public Law 115-91, Section 1025).\" Unfortunately, the Navy is still struggling to reach 300 battle force ships even as China surges past 360. This is a visible manifestation of the eroding competitive gap between the United States and China.\n\nThere is simply no shortcut to building the naval fleet that America needs.We urge you to intervene by restoring a second destroyer to the budget request and prioritizing reaching a 355-ship fleet.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-07T14:16:54Z", "2026-04-07T14:20:30Z"]], "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://trentkelly.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5329"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8524230215698481, "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"}