In case anyone might be interested to know more about how and why the US Navy currently has the ships it has, and where it wishes to go, and the issues involved in getting there, here are some links folks can examine.

First, a nice visual representation of our current fleet. These RTX posters have been put out each year for many years, and I have the 1999 version hanging on my hobby room wall, and a couple newer ones electronically stored. These are put out near the beginning of each year, so reflect the start of any given year. Of note would be that "USS" before the ship name indicates that ship is in commission when the poster is made. Names without "USS" before them are known to be either announced, authorized, or under construction. The RTX site has them for download, but this site has put up this year's for view online:

https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2025/04/14/new-ships-of-the-navy-poster/rtx-navy-poster-2025/

Here's the RTX site to download one if you want:

https://www.rtx.com/news/2024/04/04/ships-of-the-navy

Note that we have carriers, some remaining cruisers, all our Burkes including the ones projected, LCS, and the projected frigates. We also have submarines, amphibs, and some "miscellaneous" others. This then gives us two categories of "surface combatants." The remaining cruisers and the Burkes are considered Large Surface Combatants. An analogy with an earlier era would call these "battle line" ships. These surface combatants were designed and intended to serve in a carrier group (though they can/do also operate independently.) The LCS and the intended frigates make up the Small Surface Combatant category. They are meant for "non battle line" tasks.

Now, here is this year's Force Structure report, given to Congress on March 31st of this year. Congress gets one of these annually. With this in hand, you have the exact same "baseline" info your congress-person has. I would point out some things... The topic is complex. There are elements of our force structure that are governed by law. You will find at least one table showing the new unmanned surface and undersea vessels we have had under consideration. There are issues with reaching the desired force:

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL32665#

Lastly, I will include the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO's) analysis of the previous year's plan to add still more info. As noted within, this came out in January of this year, examining the report given in March of last year. (The item I linked above should get this kind of analysis next year.)

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61155

I hope folks will understand from this that:
1) The Navy is not solely responsible for the force it ends up with. Congress has considerable input and influence.
2) There's quite a bit of consideration and "process" that goes into determining what ends up built. So, whether a project succeeds or fails, it was not "undertaken lightly," without much thought. Ultimately, we can not endlessly analyze everything, so decisions do end up being made by those tasked to make them. We then get products "designed by committee," I assume most know of the saying that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.
3) This process is ongoing/continuous. One can go back and look up the prior years' reports and see evolution. For example, the unmanmed vessels only started showing up in the tables in about 2022, if I am not mistaken. As noted within the document itself, 2016 was a "big year" in determining the total fleet size prior to more recent changes now put forth. It's not static, and it can/does change with any new developments in the overall situation.
4) Ships are not built in a vacuum. All types are intended to fulfill roles in an overall force. That force is intended to accomplish specific things. As modelers, we tend to "fixate on favorites." We want the kinds of ships we like. That is normal and natural, but not how the process actually is.