Defense News reports that “something odd happened to the US Navy a few days ago. Somewhere between February and March, the fleet lost nine ships.”  

“The web page where the service lists its vital statistics — number of people, number of ships, etc. — showed a fleet of 284 ships as Feb. 27 came to a close. But on March 2, that same fleet was officially listed as 275 ships.”  

“But no real ships were decommissioned, sold, sunk or otherwise disposed of. So what happened?”  

“In a word, Congress.”