Lawmakers ask DoD to keep carrier in Virginia - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Lawmakers ask DoD to keep carrier in Virginia

Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation have once again petitioned the Pentagon not to base an aircraft carrier in Florida.

In a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., asks that in light of current budget shortfalls, the carrier move, slated for 2019, be canceled, along with the associated improvements to Naval Station Mayport.

Forbes reiterated the Navy cuts Panetta announced Jan. 26, including the early decommissioning of cruisers and amphibious ships and delaying the construction of other ships as well.

“We have always questioned the rationale underlying the [Navy] Department’s decision to homeport a CVN in Mayport,” he wrote in the letter, which was also signed by Virginia congressmen Rob Wittman and Scott Rigell, both Republicans, and Democrat Bobby Scott.

“Given the breadth of the defense budget reductions now being applied across the department and specifically to the U.S. Navy, we remain convinced that allocating an estimated $500 million to $1 billion to this project would not be in the strategic interests of the Department of the Navy nor the fiscal interests of the Navy.”

Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., whose Jacksonville-area congressional district includes Mayport, fired back, but didn’t address the budget issue.

“Leaders at the highest levels of the Pentagon have stated from day one that they stand behind the strategic imperative of two nuclear-capable homeports on the East Coast – one in Norfolk, one in Mayport,” Crenshaw wrote. “I couldn’t agree more and will continue my fight to ensure the necessary resources are available for that work.”

It’s the second letter Forbes has sent in recent months to military leaders seeking to overturn the carrier decision and keep the ship and sailors in Norfolk.

In response to Forbes’ Oct. 21 request, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert said the issue was again on the table for discussion and that the Navy would do a “strategic review, examining every program element, including funding required to homeport a CVN in Mayport,” he wrote.