Over the next few years Mississippi’s shipbuilding industry should see its share of the defense spending bill passed by federal lawmakers Thursday.
About $2.6 billion of the $447.6 billion defense appropriations bill approved by Congress this week is earmarked for construction of two naval destroyers; Ingalls Shipyard will build one and parts of the other. A total of $10.6 billion of defense funding will go toward shipbuilding in fiscal 2007.
“I’m very pleased to see the funding approved for so many programs that are important to Mississippi shipbuilders” and other contractors in the state, Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., told the Sun Herald.