Funding for Two DDG-51 Destroyers, Including One to Be Built at BIW, Signed into Law
WASHINGTON — The Fiscal Year 2022 omnibus appropriations bill signed into law today included a provision Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) fought for to fund two DDG-51 destroyers. The inclusion of the funding in the spending bill finalizes the reversal of the Biden Administration's proposal to cut production of DDG-51 destroyers — the ships built at Bath Iron Works — down to only a single ship this year. Maine's congressional delegation has resisted the shipbuilding reduction since it was announced early last year.
"American servicemembers all over the world rely on the DDG-51s built by the skilled Maine shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works. These ships are the workhorses of our Navy, key to our national security and to our defense industrial base," said Golden. "After a year of work with my colleagues in the Maine delegation, we are proud to have successfully beat back the administration's misguided proposal to cut DDG-51 shipbuilding. Instead, we've delivered funding to build two destroyers, guaranteeing one that will be built at Bath."
This funding is the final stage in the delegation's work to reverse the Biden Administration's original proposal to cut DDG-51 construction to just one ship in FY2022. Golden and the rest of the Maine congressional delegation worked to sound the alarm on the impacts of this proposed cut on national security and the shipbuilding workforce and led the effort to restore authorization and funding for a second ship. Due to their efforts, funding for a second ship has been in Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations legislation since the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee released its original bill last June.
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and vice chair of the panel's Seapower Subcommittee, Golden secured authorization last July for a second ship in the Seapower Subcommittee's base text of its portion of the FY 2022 NDAA. Then, in the full Armed Services Committee markup of the NDAA last September, Golden cosponsored a bipartisan amendment that added authorization for a third ship. That authorization for three DDG-51s was then passed by the House Armed Services Committee and passed by the House later in September. A bicameral compromise NDAA package was then passed in December.
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