I think the navy has been struggling to stay relevant in Congress' eyes ever since the cold war ended. To try to stay relevant, they've tried to change their focus from war at sea to support of forces ashore, in particular being able to respond to all those "low-intensity" conflicts and humanitarian crises that have been in the public eye since the 90s. So the budget today goes towards strike missiles and special forces. ASMs are a low priority.
It bugs me too. I read somewhere about a year ago that we passed up a chance to build some knockoffs of either the -25 or -27 to test our missile defense. This, at a time when the Brahmos is expected to be widely exported. I'm not happy about not having a replacement for the Pheonix either, although there is an ER version of the AMRAAM expected sometime in the future.
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