Lawmakers introduce bipartisan SHIPS Act to boost commercial shipping

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers today introduced legislation aimed at strengthening the American shipbuilding and commercial maritime industries following what they characterized as “decades of neglect.”

The bill in question, dubbed the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act, is being sponsored by Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Todd Young, R-Ind., as well as Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Trent Kelly, R-Miss. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who has been tapped by the new Trump administration to be national security advisor, has also previously expressed support for the bill.

“This historic bipartisan proposal would restore American leadership across the oceans by establishing national oversight and consistent funding for U.S. maritime policy, incentivizing domestic shipbuilding, enabling U.S.-flagged vessels to better compete in international commerce, rebuilding the U.S. shipyard industrial base, and expanding the mariner and shipyard workforce,” according to a written statement from the lawmakers.

The bill would establish a maritime security advisor within the White House tasked with coordinating inter-agency decisions for how to implement a national maritime strategy. It would also create a “Strategic Commercial Fleet Program” focused on expanding a US-flagged international fleet to 250 ships within 10 years. The four lawmakers said that fleet currently sits around 80 ships compared to China’s 5,500. The bill would also require that government-funded cargo be moved aboard US-flagged vessels as well as requiring a portion of imported goods from China to do the same, among other things.

“We’ve always been a maritime nation, but the truth is we’ve lost ground to China, who now dominates international shipping and can build merchant and military ships much more quickly than we can,” said Sen. Kelly. “The SHIPS for America Act is the answer to this challenge.”

Outgoing Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has made commercial shipping and shipbuilding a focus area of his this year. During an event last week hosted by the American Society of Naval Engineers, he urged the new administration to continue his efforts, theorizing that the neglect the commercial shipbuilding sector has faced in recent decades presents an opportunity for the White House to boost the economy with new jobs.

“If we want to expand our economy, you’ve got to expand the supply chain. You’ve got to expand the number of companies that are participating in the growth of the economy itself,” he said. “And there aren’t a lot of places where you could effectively do that here in the United States, [but] because we have abandoned the commercial shipbuilding industry since about the 1980s, that creates a new opportunity for growth in a significant way.”

Given the limited time the current Congress has left in session, the bill will almost certainly need to be refiled next year before it can be considered by the relevant committees or the larger chambers. Legislation related to national security often doesn’t receive standalone votes, but rather is included in the annual defense policy bill.