NORFOLK, Va. — When Congress passes a continuing resolution (CR) later this week, the good news is there'll be no government shutdown on Friday. But that also means that all appropriations will be delayed until next March, which is bad news for the Virginia Ship Repair Association (VSRA).
It means no new money coming in for the more than 300 member companies whose combined businesses have an economic impact in the Hampton Roads area of more than 79,000 jobs and $10.9 billion.
And that's just the economic side of the equation. There's also that national security side, with those companies tasked with keeping the Navy's East Coast surface ships repaired and ready to fight.
VSRA President Bill Crow is worried.
"The continuing resolution for our industry is not ever good. If they're not working out there, and there's no work being done and there's no income coming into those companies, they'll end up having to lay off," he said.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia, 2nd District) met with various stakeholders Monday and acknowledged that continuing resolutions are a problem. Warner called reliance upon them "craziness."
"Yes, government employees will get funded... but on ship repair, if you're operating on last year's budget, you can't start that next project," Warner said.
Kiggans added: "We need to keep our older ships at sea. The ship repair industry is vital to that. So, what are we doing to ensure that they have the funding that they need to keep their workforce to get that work done?"
Warner and Kiggans discussed ways to prevent this from happening in the future, including eliminating the annual August Congressional recess and withholding lawmakers'' and their staff's pay unless all appropriations bills are passed on time by October 1.
According to the Government Accountability Office, there have been 47 CRs between FY 2010-2022. These ranged from one to 176 days.