House passes bill with funds for dry dock project: Measure now goes back to Senate, then on to president for signing
(Foster's Daily Democrat, Sep 25, 2008)
KITTERY, Maine - The U.S. House approved the defense authorization bill Wednesday which appropriates more than $20 million for the construction of a new dry dock facility at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
"The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is vital to New Hampshire's economy and critical to our nation's defense," said Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., Wednesday night. "It means survival, and it means they will be ready when the Virginia-class submarines come to town (in 2010)."
The Senate is expected to tackle the defense bill and the continuing resolution today, and it is likely each will pass as neither are controversial, according to Laena Fallon, a spokeswoman for Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
"This project will make sure that Portsmouth is able to continue its gold-standard of performance, maintain a stable and robust workload, and make sure the shipyard has a state-of-the-art facility to best serve our nation's submarine fleets for years to come. We will continue to support the employees at the yard by getting full funding for the Dry Dock number 3 project to the president's desk and signed into law," Gregg said.
O'Connor says he has no reason to believe the funds won't pass through the Senate, citing the hard work by the senators, along with Shea-Porter and Congressman Tom Allen, D-Maine.
After the Senate passes the defense authorization bill and the continuing resolution there is no more back and forth with the House, and the measures will go to the president's desk, Fallon said.
The full amount of funds needed for the reconstruction of dry dock number 3, $20.6 million, has been authorized by the House. The construction of the new facility will enable the shipyard to work on Virginia Class submarines, the next generation of nuclear subs.
"This is great for our shipyard. We have been looking for this for a number of years," said Paul O'Connor, president of the shipyard's Metal Trade Council. "To be so close, we have been close before, but the bottom has dropped out. I don't expect that to happen this time. It seems a lot closer to a reality for us at this point."
Additionally, included in the measures passed by the House Wednesday was almost $10 million to consolidate old facilities at the shipyard into a more efficient warehouse, which will reduce things such as overhead support costs, energy use and overtime.
"We are going to have a nuclear parts facility, and I am really excited about that. It's all part of the support of all the work they are doing."
The new facility is planned to house materials for the Virgina-class submarines and the older, Los Angeles-class submarines.
"Right now we have a lot of our material stored in buildings that are old and in tremendous need of repair. We have equipment stored in buildings that are rat infested and mold infested," said O'Connor, who called Shea-Porter an "integral cog" in the process. "Carol is responsible for adding that project to the appropriations bill."
Shea-Porter, along Congressmen Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and Chet Edwards, D-Texas, toured the facilities, O'Connor said, and when they did they had to walk around buckets set up on the ground to collect leaking water. Edwards is the chair of the House Military Construction Veterans Affairs Committee, which sponsored the bill to which the funds are tied.
Shea-Porter said the shipyard workers won over the visiting congressmen. She said they showed their quality of work and character, the pride in the work, and the love for their country, and it left strong impressions on the Skelton and Edwards.
"Congresswoman Shea-Porter has been a very effective advocate for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which I visited at her invitation earlier this year," said Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "Congresswoman Shea-Porter's efforts were instrumental in securing funding for the Waterfront Support Facility in this year's defense authorization bill."
