Lawmakers voted for budget cuts, but not to ship programs.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Insider

* Nearly a dozen lawmakers promised to defend shipbuilding programs against automatic defense-spending cuts scheduled for January, even though the majority of them voted in favor of the act that put the budget ax in place.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., whose district includes the Huntington Ingalls' Newport News shipyard, said during an industry event on Capitol Hill that he will fight for shipbuilding programs even as the Pentagon faces funding cuts.

Wittman called for a reasonable path to avoid sequestration--an across-the-board slash to government spending that would remove another $500 billion from the defense budget over the next decade.

"Sequestration is a violent, violent course correction," said Rep. Scott Rigell, a Republican whose eastern Virginia district includes Naval Station Norfolk and Langley Air Force Base. Rigell voted in favor of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which...