"Senator Reed and I are committed to providing budgetary certainty for our nation's shipbuilding industry and the entire defense community, and I am so grateful he was able to join me here today," said Kaine, who was elected to the Senate in 2012 and serves as a member of the Armed Services Committee. "Today's visit was also a reminder of the strategic importance of maintaining an 11-carrier fleet. We've always known the long-term impacts of sequestration would be a threat to the Department of Defense, the Navy and national security—which is why I fought so aggressively last year to prevent sequester from taking effect in the first place and supported a Senate budget that replaced it entirely. And it's why I will continue to fight to reduce these strategically unwise, across-the-board sequester cuts that could put our national security at risk."