Bill Nelson, Marco Rubio and Ander Crenshaw Urge Navy to Move Up Sending Carrier to Mayport

On Wednesday, Floridas two U.S. senators -- Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio -- joined First Coast Republican U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw in sending a letter to Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the newly appointed chief of naval operations, urging him to speed up the timeline for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be based at Mayport.

Despite opposition from congressmen from Virginia looking to ensure that Norfolk is the only navy base in the Atlantic states to house a nuclear carrier, Mayport is currently scheduled to start serving as the home port for one in fiscal year 2019. The senators and Crenshaw urged Greenert to move that date up to fiscal year 2016.

You may hear from a few persistent critics of the project, but as you know the decision to disperse the East Coast carrierfleet has been examined and re-examined by the Navy, Department of Defense, and Government Accountability Office (GAO), wrote Nelson, Rubio and Crenshaw. Every study affirmed and reaffirmed, as in the case of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, what the Navy has maintained all along -- that dispersing our capital ships is in our best national security interest.

Rather than belaboring a validated decision, we ask that you consider our April 4 request to Secretary Ray Mabus to advance the carrier move from fiscal year (20)19 to fiscal year (20)16, they added. We believe this would reduce the risk to our carrier fleet from a possible terrorist attack or natural disaster, and once and for all put this issue to rest.