{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2023/10/wicker-leads-bipartisan-effort-to-receive-aukus-update", "Wicker Leads Bipartisan Effort To Receive AUKUS Update", "2023-10-17", "2023", "2023-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Roger F. Wicker", "W000437", "www.wicker.senate.gov", "wicker", "https://www.wicker.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2013 U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee recently joined his Armed Services colleagues Senators Tim Kaine, D-Va., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. on a letter to President Biden requesting an immediate update on the administration\u2019s plans to implement the landmark AUKUS agreement.\n\nSpecifically, the Senators reaffirmed their commitment to AUKUS and expressed their eagerness to receive a vital industrial base study from the administration. The study analyzes what kind of additional investment in the domestic submarine industrial base would be required to advance the agreement in the most effective fashion.\n\nThe study, which was conducted by the Department of Defense\u2019s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, would prove pivotal to informing Congress\u2019 future plans for supporting the AUKUS agreement. The Senators asked for an update on the study no later than October 31.\n\n\u201cIt is critical that the administration articulate a detailed plan for instituting necessary enhancements to the submarine industrial base,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cThis is a crucial first step in posturing the United States to effectively address existing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, and essential for fully realizing the potential of the AUKUS agreement.\u201d\n\nRead the letter in full here or below.\n\nOctober 12, 2023\n\nPresident Joe Biden\n\nThe White House\n\n1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW\n\nWashington, D.C. 20500\n\nDear President Biden,\n\nWe write to express our strong support for advancing the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) partnership. The collaboration across the U.S. government over the last several months has enabled significant progress in the development of the legal authorities necessary for AUKUS implementation, and we are eager to see those authorities be signed into law this year.\n\nTo realize the full potential of AUKUS, the American defense industrial base will require significant resources to improve submarine construction and maintenance rates. The volume of submarine tonnage the industrial base must produce to meet the Navy\u2019s own requirements and fully implement the AUKUS agreement will require historic and sustained investments in the submarine workforce and supplier network. To achieve such capacity, Congress must have a comprehensive understanding of the current status of the submarine industrial base as well as the future resource investments necessary to meet our nation\u2019s requirements.\n\nWe understand that a Submarine Industrial Base 2025 (SIB-25) study from the U.S. Navy and the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation is complete, but that the administration does not plan to share its findings with Congress until the President\u2019s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2025 is released, sometime early next year. However, understanding the scope of the generational investment required for the SIB\u2019s viability is critical for development of AUKUS-authorizing legislation this year and for robust Congressional oversight as the United States charts the future course of AUKUS. Therefore, we ask the administration to provide the cost estimates contained within the SIB-25 study to Congress no later than October 31, 2023, to inform Congressional consideration of any AUKUS-associated legislation.\n\nIt is critical that the administration articulate a detailed plan for instituting necessary enhancements to the submarine industrial base. This is a crucial first step in posturing the United States to effectively address existing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, and essential for fully realizing the potential of the AUKUS agreement.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:49:26Z"]], "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://www.wicker.senate.gov/2023/10/wicker-leads-bipartisan-effort-to-receive-aukus-update"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3540579713881016, "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"}