Biden wants to cut a submarine — and top Dems aren’t happy

President Joe Biden’s latest budget request draws a contrast with Republicans ahead of a November election rematch with Donald Trump. But a major proposal in Biden’s Pentagon request has his administration on the defensive with his fellow Democrats: a push to buy just one attack submarine.

Democrats from states that build Navy subs are already vowing to fight the Biden administration’s decision to break with tradition and halve purchases of the Virginia-class attack sub in Pentagon spending plans unveiled on Monday.

The annual submarine purchase is the marquee fault line in a $850 billion Pentagon budget request that cuts programs to meet caps on defense spending set by a debt limit deal struck last year. And a clash with the White House to restore sub purchases is already crossing party lines.

“To me, this is going in the opposite direction of where the Navy, Joe Biden and the Congress has been going consistently, towards recognizing we need a bigger fleet,” Rep. Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Seapower panel, said in an interview. The Connecticut lawmaker, who earned the nickname “Two-Sub Joe” for pushing to increase sub production, represents a district that includes the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard that builds attack subs.

Submarine boosters on Capitol Hill, who have pushed to purchase two attack subs per year for more than decade, say the cut is the wrong move as the U.S. looks to simultaneously increase its undersea fleet and build a new fleet of larger ballistic missile subs that launch nuclear weapons.

Advocates are also warning Biden that he risks undermining his own landmark AUKUS pact to develop nuclear-powered subs with Australia and the U.K. They contend the deal, which will see the U.S. sell two attack subs to Australia in the 2030s, will require even greater sub production to meet the demands of the U.S. Navy and allies in the coming years.

“The president strongly supports [the AUKUS pact], and he should. It’s a great initiative. But the president’s budget that was sent up to us actually reduces funding for Virginia-class subs,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), whose state shares the workload in building attack submarines, at a hearing Tuesday. “I view the two-to-one in this budget as an unfortunate backslide that is sort of in a cognitive dissonance with the president’s request that we fund the AUKUS initiative.”

Top lawmakers are already pushing to overturn the Pentagon plans, which have garnered bipartisan criticism. Top Republicans who are also from shipbuilding states, including Senate Armed Services ranking GOP member Roger Wicker of Mississippi, condemned the move, as did Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), a senior House Armed Services member who has advocated for a major Navy buildup.

Funding a second sub will be no easy task for Congress. Each boat costs roughly $3 billion, and budget growth is limited by the debt limit deal. The $850 billion budget submission doesn’t keep up with inflation, which forced Pentagon brass to make tough cuts to programs, including reducing pricey F-35 fighter purchases, delaying procurement of a new aircraft carrier and reducing active-duty troop levels.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) did not rule out an effort to increase the top line to accommodate another sub. “I think one way or the other, the money needs to be found, and in fact, the contractors and subcontractors are doing the work,” he said. “The DOD needs to up its game.”

Defense officials, however, argued the sub cut was driven by delays rather than saving money.

Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord told reporters Monday the Virginia-class boats arriving this year are 30 months late, and there is a backlog of roughly 12.

“Virginia class was not a budget decision,” he said. “The question was what can we do to get a different result rather than keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different result than what has happened the past few years.”

Administration officials also argue their plan to inject billions of dollars into the industrial base will have a greater impact than an additional sub by priming shipyards to be able to build boats faster.

White House budget director Shalanda Young told senators on Tuesday that a $95 billion supplemental, which includes $3.4 billion to boost sub production, must pass to ensure the U.S. keeps its commitments under AUKUS. The measure — which includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific — passed the Senate last month but hasn’t yet seen action in the House.

“That money is critical to not just building submarines, but building the base so [that] when we ask for two, we can get two. Because right now, the industrial base is not sufficient and does not have enough capacity to do that,” Young said in an exchange with Kaine. “So we really need that supplemental to move in order to keep our agreement intact with AUKUS."

But Courtney said the Navy “hitting the brakes” reverses the administration’s emphasis on boosting defense manufacturing. The submarine industrial base, which is still reeling from Covid-related supply chain issues and higher workforce retirement rates than expected, needs consistency, he argued.

“You can't just turn on and off procurement,” Courtney said. “That is, in my opinion, just as important as investing in the submarine industrial base, to build confidence in people to invest money in facilities and hiring people.”