WASHINGTON — Although it has been suggested that some portion of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program, part of which is set to be built in Mobile, could be in danger with Rep. Jo Bonner’s sudden retirement announcement last week, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby’s office seemed to indicate there is little to be concerned about.

Jonathan Graffeo, a spokesman for Shelby, told Yellowhammer Alabama’s senior senator, who serves as the vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, will “remain fully engaged on this issue.”

Back in late 2010, Shelby intervened when Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, then a high-ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, attempted to torpedo a bill that would split the Littoral Combat Ship contract between Austal and Lockheed Martin.

While McCain’s efforts temporarily sunk the proposal, Sen. Shelby resurrected it days later by convincing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to insert the LCS program into a budget resolution.

Press-Register reporter George Talbot at the time described the successful last-ditch efforts of the Alabama congressional delegation led by Shelby as “deft negotiating.”

The maneuver continues to pay off for Alabama’s economy.

Dr. Donald Epley, the director of the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell College of Business Real Estate Studies Center, estimates the most recent Austal contract with the U.S. Navy, valued at $5 billion, already has or will create 4,800 new jobs for Mobile and Washington Counties with a total economic impact of over $402 million. For the whole state of Alabama, the figure rises to 6,726 jobs and a total economic impact of nearly $713 million. And at a national level, Epley estimated 11,214 jobs have been or will be created with a total economic impact of over $2.2 billion as a result of that $5 billion contract.

“In looking ahead, understanding how we got to this point provides valuable perspective,” Graffeo said to Yellowhammer in an email.

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