The Senate Armed Services chairman last week argued the White House Naval budget request shortchanges regular annual appropriations by wrongly assuming gaps will be filled via reconciliation.
“I must say, I am deeply disappointed with the administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request for the Navy,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said in his opening statement during a hearing of Navy Department officials.
“In particular, I’m disturbed about the shipbuilding account, which plummeted to $20.8 billion from last year’s $37 billion…the shortfall reflects efforts to game the budget in anticipation of congressional reconciliation funds, which were intended as supplemental, not a substitute,” Wicker went on to say.
Wicker said because the administration assumes reconciliation will pay for some of these regular appropriations, despite congressional intent, its fiscal ‘26 Navy budget request does not include procurement of Virginia-class submarines (SSNs).
The fiscal ‘26 request does not include attack submarines, Wicker said. The administration is relying on the one Virginia-class boat proposed in the reconciliation bill, even though both the House and Senate versions recommend the $4.6 billion for an SSN with language that it should be used for a “second” vessel, as they expected another one in the baseline fiscal ‘26 budget request, he added.
Falling back to the single submarine in the reconciliation proposal, Wicker argued this “would upend the multi- year negotiations that presume nine boats over five years instead of eight. It jeopardizes industrial base recovery.”
Likewise, Wicker also said the Columbia-class ballistic missile program is underfunded by $4 billion in the fiscal 2026 request.
A version of this story first ran in Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily
