WASHINGTON, April 10 -- Sen. Tim Kaine issued the following press release:
In light of the extended deployment of Virginia-based Navy ships, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan encouraging him to use the appropriate tools and authorities to ensure ship repair workloads in the Commonwealth remain level, and that the Navy works with industry to prepare for upcoming maintenance demand. The Ford's near historic deployment, emergency repairs, and compressed maintenance cycle have disrupted the ship's scheduled servicing, which also impacts Virginia's skilled tradespeople who repair and modernize ships.
The senators began, "We write to r...