'Not a suggestion': Senators prod Navy's Del Toro for failure to respond to amphib questions -...

More than a dozen lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee today sent a letter to Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro admonishing him for failing to respond to their questions about the Navy’s compliance to a new law requiring the service to maintain a 31-amphibious warship fleet.

The letter [PDF], which was first reported by POLITICO, specifically refers to Del Toro’s April 18 appearance before the committee in which he pledged to “come back” to the committee with “a statement on how we can fix this,” referring to the disparity between the Navy’s long-term shipbuilding plan and the amphibious fleet required by law. The senators also took exception with the fact Del Toro had appeared just 24 hours after the committee received the Navy’s plan, leaving members little time to review it.

“The Navy’s current plan not only violates the statutory requirement, but also jeopardizes the future effectiveness of the joint force, especially as we consider national security threats in the Indo-Pacific,” according to the letter, organized by Sen. Sullivan, R-Ala., and signed by 13 Democratic and Republican senators who are also SASC members. Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I, was not among the signatories, but Ranking Member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was.