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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShelby adds $760 million for unrequested ships with Alabama ties
The Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Alabama Republican Richard C. Shelby, added more than three quarters of a billion dollars to its new Pentagon spending bill for warships that were not sought by the Navy but are built by Shelbys constituents.
Tucked deep inside the draft Senate Pentagon spending bill is $500 million for an LHA replacement, the next in the America class of amphibious assault ships, which are smaller versions of aircraft carriers and are designed to carry Marines and their aircraft.
The America class of ships is being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Miss., right next to Alabama, and many of the shipyard workers are Alabamians.
When the late Thad Cochran, R-Miss., was a leader of the Senates Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, he would often add funds for ships made in Pascagoula. Shelby appears to be continuing that tradition.
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/11/18/shelby-adds-760-million-for-unrequested-ships-with-alabama-ties/
dchill
(38,484 posts)What, we're going to fund an Alabama Republican Navy now?