Senate Presents Navy Two Ships Ordered by Shah: Senate Votes to Acquire 2 Unrequested Dest
The Senate last night overwhelmingly voted in favor of U,S. acquisition of two destroyers that the Navy never asked for until recently. The 62-to-26 vote could add $700 million to the federal deficit this year.</br></br>The issue under consideration was. whether the United States should pay Litton Industries the $700 million to acquire the two ships, originally ordered by the shah of Iran. The new. Iranian government has canceled the-order, leaving LittonÛªs Ingalls Ship-' building Division with four partially completed destroyers that do not meet U.S. Navy specifications.</br></br>In the Budget Committee several weeks ago, Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr.' (D-Mich.) moved to eliminate from the Senate budget resolution $1.35. billion for the United States to acquire the ships. The motion carried, but due to a mistake or a mixup, the budget resolution reached the floor with money for two destroyers still included.</br></br>Riegle pleaded with his colleagues yesterday to eliminate that money. Approval of the $700 million would be "the most powerful symbolic message that comes out of the 1980 budget process,Û Riegle said, warning that the public would be outraged when it realized how the United States was bailing out Litton.</br></br>But Riegle was up against one of the last of the SenateÛªs powerful southern committee chairmen, John C. Stcnnis (D-Miss.l. Stennis chairs the Armed Services Committee, which has voted to acquire the lour Spruance-class destroyers, which are