GROTON, CONNECTICUT: SUBMARINE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

On 2026-04-20, Representative Joe Courtney (D-CT-2) delivered a floor speech titled "GROTON, CONNECTICUT: SUBMARINE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD" in the House. The speech addressed taxes and also covered the environment, trade policy.

GROTON, CONNECTICUT: SUBMARINE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 69 (Monday, April 20, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 69 (Monday, April 20, 2026)] [House] [Page H2965] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] GROTON, CONNECTICUT: SUBMARINE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD (Mr. Courtney of Connecticut was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to draw the attention of the House to another milestone in the extraordinary history of the Submarine Capital of the World, Groton, Connecticut, where this Saturday, USS Idaho (SSN-799) will be commissioned. Idaho is the 26th Virginia-class attack submarine delivered to the U.S. Navy, and the seventh such vessel built by the U.S. submarine industrial base in the last 4 years. It is a technological marvel, weighing 7,800 tons, and the product of a workforce at the Electric Boat shipyard that has 26,000 hardworking, talented people. Building a submarine is an extremely complex enterprise. Submarines operate in an environment that does not support human life, with a crew of 135 sailors. The boat is powered by a nuclear reactor and is armed with an arsenal to carry out its mission of deterrence. This is so important to our national security. Needless to say, there is no margin of error in its construction. The good news is as the output of the Virginia-class program has grown, the proficiency of a new generation of shipyard workers has accelerated over the last 10 years, and the submarine quality scores by the Navy during submarine sea trials have steadily improved. In the case of USS Idaho, the Navy recorded the highest test scores in the history of the Virginia program. Mr. Speaker, this successful commissioning is happening at a time when the volume of production is also hitting historic highs and hiring has been growing over the last 10 years. This poster, produced by the U.S. Navy, depicts the volume of submarine construction tonnage in the U.S. starting in 1952, to my far right, through the present and into the future of 2054. The orange bar represents tonnage in 2026, which is on par with the peak of high-rate production in the midst of the Cold War. There is no question, Mr. Speaker, that Groton, Connecticut, is the Submarine Capital of the World, full stop, period. It is not, as some are trying to say, trying to reclaim its title. Indeed, after Idaho's commissioning on Saturday, EB and its teaming partner, Huntington Ingalls Industries, are hard at work delivering USS Arkansas (SSN-800), which is now in the water performing sea trials, and USS Utah (SSN-801), which I visited in Groton with Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle a few days ago, and soon to be floated off to join Arkansas for at-sea testing. They will be the 27th and the 28th Virginia-class submarines to be delivered to the fleet as soon as the end of this calendar year. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, Groton is the yard where the first Columbia-class SSBNs, the USS District of Columbia, is in the final stage of production and assembly. Columbia submarines weigh 21,000 tons, 2\1/2\ times the size of a Virginia. Once again, the EB workforce defied the skeptics and naysayers when the Navy announced that delivery of that boat is being moved up to calendar year 2028 from 2029, which was the Navy's prior plan. As ranking member of the Seapower Subcommittee on the House Committee on House Armed Services, I cannot overstate how extraordinary it is to have a first-in-class of a program's delivery date moved forward rather than back. The strong momentum at the Groton yard and its sister shipyard at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, received another round of good news when EB recently announced its hiring goal for 2026. The overall goal is 8,000 new workers in 2026: 3,400 in Rhode Island and 4,600 in Groton. The plan will take the workforce from 26,000 to over 30,000 for the first time since the 1980s. Once again, the skeptics and naysayers are scoffing at this goal, but as someone who has been directly involved in the adult job training programs and helping equip career and technical schools, as well as regular comprehensive high schools, with apparatus to run metal trades curricula, I have no doubt that Groton will meet its goal. Indeed, 1 week ago, EB held a job fair in Waterford, Connecticut, expecting perhaps a few hundred visits. Instead, 1,800 people showed up. They had to cut off the line a few hours into the event because the H.R. staff was so overwhelmed. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday at the USS Idaho commissioning, the head of Naval Reactors Admiral Bill Houston, the successor to the Father of the Nuclear Navy, Hyman Rickover, will deliver keynote remarks, and it will be a proud moment for the ship's commanding officer, Commander Chad Guillerault, his crew, and their families. It will also be a strong reaffirmation at the Groton Submarine Base, America's oldest submarine base, that the men and women who work at Electric Boat have, once again, demonstrated to our Nation and the world that Groton is still and always will be the Submarine Capital of the World. ____________________