ADVANCED SHIPBUILDING ENTERPRISE.

SEC. 1016. ADVANCED SHIPBUILDING ENTERPRISE.(a) Findings.—Congress makes the following findings:(1) The President’s budget for fiscal year 2004, as submitted to Congress, includes $10,300,000 for the Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise of the National Shipbuilding Research Program.(2) The Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise is an innovative program to encourage greater efficiency among shipyards in the defense industrial base.(3) The leaders of the Nation’s shipbuilding industry have embraced the Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise as a method of exploring and collaborating on innovation in shipbuilding and ship repair that collectively benefits all manufacturers in the industry.(b) Sense of the Congress.—It is the sense of the Congress that—(1) the Congress strongly supports the innovative Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise of the National Shipbuilding Research Program that has yielded new processes and techniques to reduce the cost of building and repairing ships in the United States;(2) the Congress is concerned that the future-years defense program submitted to Congress for fiscal year 2004 does not reflect any funding for the Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise after fiscal year 2004; and(3) the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy should continue funding the Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise at a sustaining level through the future-years defense program to support subsequent rounds of research that reduce the cost of designing, building, and repairing ships.117 STAT. 1593