A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is hoping an executive order signed earlier this month will give oxygen to a sprawling bill intended to revitalize the commercial maritime and shipbuilding industries and rebuff China.
Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) joined Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) in reintroducing the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act Wednesday morning.
According to an estimate from Sen. Kelly’s office, just 80 U.S.-flagged commercial ocean vessels are participating in international commerce, compared to China’s 5,500.
In a Wednesday press conference at the U.S. Capitol announcing the reintroduction, Texas A&M Maritime Academy Superintendent Michael Fossum, a former astronaut colleague of Sen. Kelly’s, said the two men were now “on another mission together to serve our country.”
Fossum noted that those 80 U.S.-flagged ships included 17 sidelined because there are not enough mariners available to crew them. He hailed the new legislation as vital to national security and the economy, saying it would provide the support needed to boost training program enrollment and revamp training berths without having to pass the costs down to students.
“Build these new fleets, and we will get you the crews you need,” he said,” but we have to get costs down to get students in the doors.”
The bill, first introduced in December with a broad show of support from industry, would designate government officials and offices to support the health of commercial shipbuilding. Re-introduced Wednesday as two Senate bills, it would establish the Office of the Maritime Security Advisor, a new position appointed by the president, with a four-member board, to provide oversight of the maritime workforce and size of maritime security fleets. The existing Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Committee would report to the new office.
In the press conference, Young said the message was simple: “Make American ships again.”
“We should call this convergence of the rise of China’s commercial fleet and the fall of our own what it is: It’s a pending national crisis,” Young said. “If our economy depends on goods carried aboard Chinese-flagged vessels, our supply chain is always at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party.”
He cited Trump’s executive order as a sign of the momentum on this issue.
“This is a critical national and economic security issue, one that transcends party,” he said.
The legislation would establish a Maritime Security Trust Fund, similar to the funds for highways and aviation; encourage the U.S. to work with allies to meet sealift requirements; and advantage the U.S. by requiring 100 percent of government cargo to travel on U.S.-flagged ships, up from the 50 percent requirement today.
The SHIPS Act would also create The Strategic Commercial Fleet Program, a new fleet of 250 U.S.-flag ships created by purchasing “commercially viable, militarily useful, privately owned vessels,” according to a summary of the bill from Sen. Kelly’s office. This fleet would serve “to meet national security requirements and maintain a U.S. presence in international commercial shipping,” according to the summary.
A package of workforce incentives for the undermanned merchant mariner and shipyard fields would include public service loan forgiveness, limited eligibility for educational assistance under the military’s GI bill, and a report into a smoother military-to-mariner career pipeline.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump, who has created a Whote House shipbuilding office, signed the “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance” executive order. The order requires the Departments of Defense, Labor, Commerce and Transportation to work with the U.S. Trade Representative to create a Maritime Action Plan for the White House, along with options for shoring up U.S. shipbuilding. It also condemns China’s “unfair targeting of maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors,” noting that China builds an estimated half of commercial ships, while the U.S. contributed just one percent. It proposes tariffs as a solution.
Trump’s executive order also called for the creation of the Maritime Security Trust Fund described in the SHIPS Act.
“The commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce of the United States has been weakened by decades of Government neglect, leading to the decline of a once strong industrial base while simultaneously empowering our adversaries and eroding United States national security,” the order states.
Sen. Kelly, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, said even his Arizona constituents felt the impact on prices of a China-dominated maritime shipping industry subsidized by its government.
The legislation, he said, “is without a doubt the most ambitious effort in a generation to revitalize the U.S. ship building and commercial maritime industries and counter China’s dominance over the oceans.”
