From his perch on both the U.S. House Defense Appropriations subcommittee and the House Appropriations Committee, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw struck back this week against efforts to prevent a nuclear aircraft carrier from being stationed at Mayport on the First Coast.
On Tuesday, with Crenshaws support, the full House Appropriations Committee backed the fiscal year 2012 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill which contains almost $15 million for infrastructure improvements to ready Mayport as a nuclear aircraft carrier base.
Earlier in the month, the House Armed Services Committee voted to gut funding that was allocated for improvements Mayport needs in order to house a carrier. U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and who is looking to ensure Norfolk would be the only naval base on the East Coast with a nuclear carrier, crowed that slashing $30 million in funding from Mayport would help the Old Dominion.
Crenshaw fired back on Tuesday, noting that Pentagon officials maintained America needed two ports for nuclear carriers on the Atlantic seaboard. While Mayport has traditionally housed aircraft carriers, there have not been any stationed there since 2007, when the USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned.
Noting that Congress has already allocated more than $77 million in improvements to help ensure Mayport will be ready for a nuclear carrier, Crenshaws office noted that the bill will fund as necessary the planning and design of future home-porting projects such as the maintenance wharf and controlled industrial facility even though the appropriation is half of what was lost earlier in the month.
Mayport wins today as it always has before, said Crenshaw. Military and defense personnel at the highest levels say the East Coast needs two nuclear aircraft carrier home ports one of them in Jacksonville. Im proud to have cast a vote in support of national security and will fight on until the day a carrier sails in to home port on the First Coast.Crenshaw expressed confidence that the U.S. Senate would follow the recommendations made by both the White House and the Navy, and join the House Appropriations Committee in continuing to fund projects necessary to house a nuclear carrier at Mayport.
The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill also sent more than $32 million to Naval Air Station Jacksonville for a training facility and hanger improvements for the new P-8A aircraft from Boeing which the Navy is using to replace the P-3 Orions to track and combat submarines from the air. The bill also contains almost $4.5 million for an unmanned aerial system for maritime surveillance to be based at the air station.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
