WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement in response to press reports about a new nuclear shipbuilding contracts reform proposal known as Shipyard Accountability and Workforce Support (SAWS), under consideration across the federal government:

"The SAWS plan would provide the workforce support necessary to increase ship production rates - all without requiring additional appropriation. While not a silver bullet, this proposal stands to improve the way the Navy does business on critical defense programs," Senator Wicker said.

Senator Wicker also highlighted the following potential benefits of SAWS. The plan would:

• Fortify the submarine industrial base against pre-COVID fixed prices for nuclear submarines and protect against the high inflation brought on by the Biden administration;
• Free up billions in unspent funds that could be immediately invested in workforce development, productivity, and quality of life improvements at shipyards;
• Reset wages at shipyards to make skilled trades competitive with other entry-level positions in the labor force and potentially increase recruitment, efficiency, and retention;
• Repurpose certain shipyard-wide service labor costs from nearly decade-long submarine building contracts to better manage the enterprise;
• Utilize a contracting model that is currently used on other programs for aircraft, missiles, and satellites;
• Avoid future cost growth that could crowd out other programs from the shipbuilding budget including aircraft carriers, destroyers, and amphibious ships.