New federal budget will include funding for BIW to build a DDG-51 destroyer

Maine Public | By Fred Bever

Published March 15, 2022 at 2:46 PM EDT

The USS Lyndon B. Johnson, far right, is docked at Bath Iron Works on the Kennebec River, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, in Bath, Maine.

Members of Maine's congressional delegation are announcing the restoration of $1.6 billion dollars to the Pentagon's budget for 2022, to ensure funding for a Bath Iron Works contract to build one of the U.S. Navy's next two DDG-51 destroyers.

President Joe Biden's initial omnibus budget proposal would have funded only one of the destroyers, creating uncertainty about whether BIW or competitor Huntington-Ingalls would be first in line.

Delegation members say they worked to restore the funds for a second destroyer in various iterations of the budget, and they were included in the final version that Biden signed today.

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Fred Bever

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.

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