A full-year continuing resolution would not hinder work on the Navy’s top acquisition priority:  the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, according to service officials.

The ongoing CR runs through April 28, and the Pentagon is concerned about the possibility of a full-year stopgap funding measure. The military services have issued dire warnings on the negative consequences that would result from Congress’s inaction.

But Sean Stackley, acting Navy secretary, told reporters the exception the service received for the Columbia-class program under the current CR has ensured work on the program will progress through the remainder of fiscal year 2017.

“The Columbia was given an anomaly, so we are marching unimpeded. We’re holding schedule and driving forward on that,” Stackley said following an April 5 address at the Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, MD. “The anomaly covers us and with the anomaly, we got an apportionment to cover our budget requirements.”

In December, the Columbia program was granted by Congress a rare anomaly, exempting it from typical CR rules that limit programs to prior-year funding levels. The anomaly allowed the program to allocate new-start procurement funding and transition into detail design and construction in January.

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