Number: RL32776
Title: Navy Ship Procurement: Alternative Funding Approaches--Background and Options for Congress
Authors: Ronald O'Rourke, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division 
Abstract: The issue for Congress is whether to maintain current practices for funding Navy ship procurement or change them by, for example, increasing the use of incremental funding or starting to use advance appropriations. Congress's decision on this issue could be significant because the full funding policy relates to Congress's power of the purse and its responsibility for conducting oversight of Department of Defense (DOD) programs. Consequently, the issue can be alternately expressed as how to procure Navy ships economically while maintaining key congressional prerogatives. Congress's decision on ship funding approaches could also affect future Navy capabilities, annual Navy funding requirements, and the shipbuilding industrial base.
Pages: 34
Date: June 15, 2007