Need To Extend the Period of Availability for Navy Shipbuilding Funds

Gao ID: MASAD-81-22 April 1, 1981

The Navy's shipbuilding programs are fully funded, and the funds must be obligated within 5 years or they expire. The Navy has requested that the current 5-year time limit for obligation of shipbuilding and conversion funds be extended to 7 years.

Because construction times average 6 to 7 years, the Navy has been unable to obligate the total full-funding dollars approved for shipbuilding programs within the 5-year period. In most cases, additional work needs to be funded after the appropriations have expired. In order to finance the completion of ship construction, the Navy has requested and obtained special funding extensions. GAO believes that the 7-year availability period is reasonable and represents the best funding option available. Extending the funding availability from 5 to 7 years would maintain the integrity of the full-funding policy and would provide the Navy with the time to complete most programs, while allowing Congress to maintain control through the fixed-term appropriation.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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