House and Senate negotiators have proposed cutting $150 million from a $400 million line item for a future Navy destroyer that Maine’s congressional delegation argues should be awarded to Bath Iron Works.

The $150 million is part of $5 billion in proposed reductions to the $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act in order to bring spending levels in line with a budget passed by Congress last week. The bill sets annual defense policy and authorizes Pentagon spending levels on individual programs.

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation fought to include $400 million in incremental funding for a future Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the version of the NDAA that passed Congress last month. President Obama vetoed that version of the defense policy bill, however, amid a larger disagreement with Congress over federal spending.

With the budget now resolved, leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees agreed to trim $5 billion from the defense bill rather than push for a veto override. And the additional $400 million for an Arleigh Burke destroyer was considered low-hanging fruit because it had not been requested by the Navy but was, instead, added to the spending bill at the request of U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

King and other members of the state’s delegation have argued that Congress’ decision last year to provide funding for construction of an additional amphibious ship to a Mississippi shipyard should trigger another destroyer contract for BIW. That’s because in 2002, the Navy negotiated a “ship-swap agreement” that transferred construction of four amphibious warships from BIW to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in exchange for BIW receiving up to four destroyer contracts.

The Navy has yet to decide whether BIW is owed an additional destroyer contract. But King said Tuesday that he was pleased that the defense authorization bill still contains $250 million for a potential destroyer. The latest generation of Arleigh Burke destroyers being built by BIW and Huntington Ingalls are estimated to cost more than $1.5 billion each.

“I am very encouraged that we were able to maintain this critical authorization, which will position Bath Iron Works to either receive another DDG-51 contract under the terms of the 2002 (agreement) or compete to build another one in the coming years – a significant win for Maine and for our Navy,” King said in a statement. “The Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are the backbone of our Navy, and no one builds them better than the hardworking men and women at Bath Iron Works.”

The defense authorization bill contains a number of other items sought by members of Maine’s congressional delegation, including:

• A $3.1 billion authorization for two more Arleigh Burke destroyers already requested by the Navy, one of which would be built at BIW.

• An additional $433 million toward construction of a DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer at BIW.

• Changes to the eligibility criteria for businesses interested in using an economic development program, known as the Historically Underutilized Business Zones or HUBZones program, that could benefit the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.

 

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