White House intervened to add extra littoral combat ship to Navy's budget
Source: CNN
By Jeremy Herb, CNN
Updated 3:09 PM ET, Fri May 26, 2017
Story highlights
The decision has turned heads on Capitol Hill, which is still awaiting a detailed explanation
Littoral combat ships are built in Mobile, Alabama, and in Marinette, Wisconsin
(CNN)The White House intervened in order to add an extra littoral combat ship to Navy's budget request a day after the budget was released, three sources familiar with the decision told CNN, in a move that has befuddled lawmakers and budget experts.
The decision to add a second littoral combat ship to the Trump administration budget after the fact caught even Navy leaders by surprise, with Navy officials delivering contradictory testimony Wednesday while defending their budget on Capitol Hill.
The Navy initially submitted a budget that funded one littoral combat ship for 2018, down from two that the Obama administration requested in 2017.
On Wednesday morning, acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley defended the decision to fund just one such ship in a Senate hearing. But by the afternoon, Navy acquisition official Allison Stiller testified to a House panel that the White House Office of Management and Budget now "endorsed" a second ship, which would cost more than $500 million.
According to the sources, the littoral combat ship about-face was spearheaded in the White House by Rick Dearborn, a White House deputy chief of staff who is the former chief of staff to Alabama senator-turned Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Littoral combat ships are built by Lockheed Martin in Mobile, Alabama, and Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin. Lawmakers from those two states have warned that cutting the LCS production would lead to devastating job losses for the shipyards, and Congress added a third littoral combat ship to the Navy's 2017 budget.
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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/politics/littoral-combat-ship-white-house-intervene/index.html
whow--a half a billion $$--just tossed in by WH on a whim.
= new reply since forum marked as read
is the best descriptor. Hey! Maybe those snookered sorts from Carrier will get a job at the shipyards. 
No problem - 
