WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to approve a $549.3 billion defense spending measure for fiscal year 2015.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense who helped write and advance the bill, said it will improve our defense capabilities, support the men and women of our Armed Forces, and invest in a stronger industrial base for Rhode Island. 

“Part of fiscal discipline and budgeting responsibly means we need to sharply focus on our strategic priorities and provide critical funding to help maintain a strong, flexible military.  In a tough budget environment, this bill supports our troops, veterans, and their families,” said Reed.  “We need to start making some hard choices and this bill removes $11.7 billion in funding for outdated programs that are ill-suited to meet future threats and reinvests those funds in the military’s most capable and effective programs and platforms.”

Reed, who also serves as the Chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, led the effort to include critical funding for Virginia-class submarines and other key shipbuilding programs.

“Submarines’ unique capabilities for stealth and strike capacity, and their ability to deliver special forces personnel into difficult environments make them an extremely effective force multiplier and deterrent to our adversaries,” said Reed.  “This legislation fully funds all construction activities of two Virginia-class submarines.  The Virginia-class submarine is a critical component of our national defense capabilities, and Rhode Island plays an important role in its construction.”

Submarine manufacturing is a vital part of Rhode Island’s defense industry.  Sustaining a robust procurement rate for the Virginia-class submarine program is critical given the cost savings achieved, the efficiencies gained in the production schedule, and the projected shortfall in attack submarines in the next decade.

Earlier this year, the Navy signed a $17.6 billion multi-year contract with General Dynamics to build ten Virginia-class submarines.  Reed says this will help strengthen our nation’s defense capabilities, is cost effective for taxpayers, and ensures a stable workload at the company’s Electric Boat (EB) shipyard in Quonset Point for many years to come.  The Block IV agreement includes ships beginning in fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2018.

“These submarines are a great value in terms of their cost-effectiveness and ensuring continued U.S. superiority in our undersea capabilities.  I will continue working hard to ensure the Navy maintains a steady, two-a-year production rate,” said Reed.

Additionally, the bill provides full funding for the Ohio-class replacement submarine program and the DDG-1000 program.

It also provides funding to several research and development programs, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Rapid Innovation Program to aid in technology transition across a broad spectrum of technologies, and the Defense Production Act to build production capacity for critical defense technologies.

To help Rhode Island companies compete, Senator Reed worked to ensure the bill includes an additional $12.7 million for the Department of Defense’s national Procurement Technical Assistance Program, which will provide Rhode Island’s small businesses with technical assistance to market their products and services to the federal government.

Reed also backed provisions in the bill to provide $3.6 million to help ease the Department of Veterans Affairs claims backlog by accelerating the transfer of DOD health care records and $25 million for DOD to implement the Special Victims’ Counsel Program across all branches of the military in order to provide victims of sexual assault with legal assistance and support.  With this additional funding, sexual assault prevention funding will have nearly tripled over the past three years.  The bill also includes provisions to ensure that institutions participating in the voluntary military education program operate with transparency and provide quality educational opportunities to service members by prohibiting the use of program funds for advertising and marketing; designating these funds as federal funds for education oversight purposes; and requiring DOD to report on education outcomes measures.  In addition, the bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study and make recommendations on education service officer staffing ratios and improvements to DOD’s third-party audit process to ensure that institutions are meeting program requirements.

The bill now awaits consideration by the full Senate.  Once it is approved by the Senate, differences between this bill and a version passed by the U.S. House of Representatives will have to be resolved by a conference committee.

 -end-