The AUKUS deal has become a contentious issue in Washington in the past month with nine Congressmen choosing to make public their “strong support” for the AUKUS pact and commitment to help Australia develop nuclear submarine capabilities. In a letter to President Joe Biden (pdf), they wrote that it could be a unique opportunity to expand the industrial base to support both U.S. and Australian submarine construction.

“Far from a zero-sum game, the potential for the United States to provide or build new submarines under AUKUS, should that be the recommendation of the trilateral consultation, could very well be a ‘rising tide that lifts all boats,” the congressmen said, referencing a letter to the Biden Administration from two Senators warning against selling nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

The letter came a week after reports emerged that Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and recently retired Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) expressed concerns that supplying Australia with Virginia-class nuclear submarines would stretch the U.S. industrial base to breaking point.

“We are concerned that what was initially touted as a ‘do no harm’ opportunity … may be turning into a zero-sum game for scarce, highly advanced U.S. SSNs (nuclear attack submarine),” Reed and Inhofe said in a letter dated Dec. 21 and later leaked in January.

But the nine members of the House said the goals of AUKUS were a “multi-generational effort” and worth embarking on for the security of the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific.

The letter was signed by Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn), Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), and Blake Moore (R-Utah).

They acknowledged that the U.S. submarine industrial base had been strained by COVID-19 restrictions. But said the situation will not remain “static” over the coming decades.

“While the present challenges in delivering new Virginia class submarines need to be fully considered in any discussion about the way ahead, so too must be the potential value and benefit of a fully integrated industrial base that could come as a result,” they wrote.