The bulk of the funding would go toward Navy and Coast shipyard infrastructure.
Top Senate Republicans are looking to add more than $50 billion in defense funding to bipartisan infrastructure legislation to tackle overdue repairs and upgrade efforts at shipyards, depots, test ranges and defense laboratories. Senate Appropriations ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has filed an amendment to the infrastructure package to boost defense funding, which was obtained by POLITICO. He’s joined by Senate Armed Services ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The Republican defense hawks’ effort is the largest, and most detailed, proposal for defense money in an infrastructure bill so far. The bulk of the funding would go toward Navy and Coast shipyard infrastructure, an effort members of both parties had contemplated for months ahead of the current floor debate. But the proposal also seeks to boost funding for military construction projects, depot upgrades, test ranges, national security labs and the installation of 5G technology. Shelby’s and Inhofe’s offices did not immediately comment on the effort. Shipyards: Half of the funding in the amendment, just under $25.4 billion, would go toward upgrades and repairs at Navy and Coast Guard shipyards. Similar proposals have garnered bipartisan support, particularly lawmakers from states with shipyards. The Navy has laid out a decades-long plan to modernize its public shipyards to support new ships and a larger fleet.
