Sen. Richard Shelby: Austal USA, LCS program ‘still on positive ground’ despite potential cuts (updated)

I’ve worked hard to see where we are today to help to bring us here. You know, we’ve got 4,000 employees here in Mobile and a – what? – $200 million payroll. I like what they’re doing. I like the jobs. I like the benefits to the economy, and I like what it’s going to do as far as national security,” Shelby told members of the media Monday morning, accompanied by Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle for a tour of the shipbuilder’s sprawling campus along Mobile’s waterfront.

The meeting marks the sixth stop on Shelby’s statewide jobs and industry tour, during which he will visit a business in each of Alabama’s 67 counties. The senator left Mobile en route to UTC Aerospace Systems in Foley.

“Job creation must be our top priority as a nation, and it will be the focus of my statewide travel. It is critical that I hear firsthand from job creators and workers how federal policies are affecting economic growth, and what we can do to create more jobs in Alabama. These conversations with my constituents have always played a critical role in informing how I vote on issues before the Senate, and I look forward to traveling throughout the state again this year,” Shelby said in a statement released ahead of Monday’s visits.