UPDATED: Shaheen Gets $513m for PNSY Included in National Defense Authorization Bill

U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen announced Friday afternoon that $513 million has been included in the National Defense Authorization bill for modernized infrastructure improvements at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The requested funds were part of an amendment proposed by Shaheen with Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and supported by Olympia Snowe (R-ME), would require the Navy to begin to address these critical deficiencies.  

“The men and women at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard have provided outstanding service in support of U.S. Naval operations for almost 200 years. Over the last decade, Portsmouth has suffered from lack of investment in critical infrastructure causing both a decrease in efficiency and hazardous working conditions," said Shaheen in a prepared statement. 

"Revitalizing our shipyards will ensure that the men and women of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard will be able to continue to safely and efficiently maintain the ships that protect our shores.”

The four U.S. Senators from New Hampshire and Maine succeeded in getting the U.S. Secretary of the Navy to submit a plan to Congress by March 1, 2012 calling for millions of dollars in infrastructure investments for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and the Navy's three other shipyards.

In November 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that found that the Navy's modernization requirements at our nation's four public shipyards were underestimated, even though the Navy has stated that the backlog of facility improvements at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is $513 million. 

In March, the Navy announced plans to invest approximately $100 million in facility upgrades and modernization at PNSY next year. The funding, provided through the Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization (SRM) budget, would be used for energy conservation and repairs to submarine enclosures, building renovations, repair to the waterfront support facility and structural repair and consolidation of the yard's workshops.