Sen. Jim Webb's letter to the Department of Defense

In a letter to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., argued that the Department of Defense's bueget shortfall was reason enough to disapprove any Navy funding request for homeporting a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Mayport, Florida.”

Below is a full copy of the letter:

March 17, 2009

The Honorable Michèle Flournoy

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

The Department of Defense

1000 Defense Pentagon

Washington, D.C. 20301

Dear Secretary Flournoy:

My purpose in writing is to bring to your attention a $417 million shortfall in the Navy’s fiscal year 2009 funding for ship maintenance on both the East and West Coasts. Should the final increment of the FY-2009 emergency defense supplemental not fund this requirement adequately, significant adverse impacts on near-term fleet readiness and employment levels at private ship-repair companies in multiple homeports will likely occur later this year.

For these reasons, there is an even more compelling argument for the Department of Defense (DoD) to disapprove any Navy request to include funding in its FY-2010 budget request for homeporting a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Mayport, Fla. The Navy currently estimates this relocation would cost in excess of $600 million, but I am confident - based on extensive past experience - that the total cost would eventually exceed $1 billion. At a time when the Navy is not funding many high-priority operational, military construction, and fleet-support requirements, it is unconscionable to waste taxpayer dollars on such a strategically unnecessary and fiscally irresponsible homeporting project.

I have enclosed a commentary written by Everett Pyatt that was published in the Virginian Pilot newspaper this month. Mr. Pyatt, a senior Navy acquisition official in both the Carter and Reagan administrations, said that he was “shocked” to learn of the Navy’s homeporting proposal. “This proposal does not pass the common-sense test,” he wrote, “and is not worth the minimum $671 million to implement it.” He identifies more affordable and strategically sound homeporting options for Mayport.

During your confirmation hearing in January, both you and Deputy Secretary of Defense Lynn committed to review the Navy’s homeporting proposal at the OSD level. I appreciated your stated intention to do so. I would suggest that, in the face of the Navy’s many major 2009 and 2010 unfunded requirements, an early decision is advisable.

On a relevant and equally important note, the Navy’s reliance on emergency defense supplemental appropriations to fund routine ship maintenance in recent years begs for your re-examination. Predictable ship maintenance should not be funded through emergency supplementals. Such funding should be included in the core budget, and it should be protected. Should the Navy not receive necessary funding in the remaining FY-2009 supplemental, numerous ship-maintenance availabilities could be descoped or deferred until next year. Fleet readiness will suffer, and our private ship-repair companies will be obliged to send workers home. During the economic crisis at hand, such prospects are unconscionable.

I am mindful of the many pressing issues you face during the early months of the new administration, but I believe the extraordinary costs associated with the Navy’s carrier homeporting proposal mandate early DoD action. Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Jim Webb

United States Senator

CC: The Honorable Robert F. Hale