Representative Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) blasted the Biden administration’s Fiscal Year 2023 $773 billion Defense Budget proposal, criticizing a plan to decommission ships in favor of cost savings. Luria, a Navy veteran, is facing a potentially serious re-election challenge with Senator Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach) and Jarome Bell, also Navy veterans, fighting for the GOP nomination. The area includes a large number of military bases, including Naval Station Norfolk.
“I have delayed putting out a statement about the Defense Budget because frankly it would have been mostly full of words you might expect from a Sailor, but here goes: It sucks,” Luria wrote in a series of tweets Tuesday. “Once again, this Administration has chosen the divest-to-invest strategy as if whatever future conflict will not occur for at least two decades. Admirals Davidson and Aquilino disagree. The Navy owes a public apology to American taxpayers for wasting tens of billions of dollars on ships they now say serve no purpose.”
Luria’s position isn’t new; she and Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) have opposed plans to decommission ships based in the Hampton Roads area and are generally concerned about investment in the area’s military facilities.
“They propose decommissioning 24 ships; 11 of which are less than 10 years old. One has been in service less than two years and two are currently in modernization,” Luria continued. “All to save…0.5 percent of their budget. This, along with an anemic building program, will shrink the Navy to 280 ships, at the same time they are calling to build a 500-ship Navy. HINT: If you want to grow the Navy, stop decommissioning more ships than you build. China is not a ‘pacing challenge’ when they will soon have double the size of our Navy. We are losing 1,000+ VLS [Vertical Launch System] cells, with NO PLAN to replace them. Instead, we are investing in the next ‘Gucci’ missile and technology that will not be mature for 20-plus years. Lastly, the Navy has no strategy. Stop saying you do, because if you did you would be able to explain how this Fleet size will allow us to defend Taiwan.”
In a statement to The Virginia Star, Kiggans said, “Elaine Luria thinks she can simply ‘tweet’ her disapproval of the FY 2023 Defense Budget and the taxpayers of the Second District will suddenly forget she has spent the last two years rubber-stamping Joe Biden’s budgets and agenda, while refusing to hold him accountable for his disastrous foreign policy and national security failures.”
“The Biden Administration’s FY 23 Defense Budget is an utter embarrassment and would put our active-duty troops in harm’s way and military installations critical to Hampton Roads at risk of closure. The difference between me and Elaine Luria is I have the courage to actually stand up and do something about it, while Elaine thinks tweeting ‘it sucks’ will do the trick. The thousands of active-duty military members and their families in the Second District deserve so much better than Elaine Luria.”
Bell didn’t provide a statement by press time, but said he was reviewing the bill and Luria’s response.
Wittman recently announced the creation of a bipartisan caucus focused on supporting the Navy’s public shipyards; Luria is one of the original members of the caucus. Wittman criticized the FY 23 Defense Budget proposal in a Monday press release, saying it does not include a five percent increase over FY22 funding, which he said is needed to address the international security environment.
“I am particularly disappointed that even as we aim to grow our naval and projection forces, this budget continues the divest to invest strategy that will shrink our fleet once again, underinvest in the fifth-generation fighters we need to compete with peer adversaries, reduces our Air Force tanker force structure and once again prioritizes future technologies over the capacity and capabilities servicemembers need now to ensure we have a credible American military,” Wittman said.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
