After some delays, a new piece of pro-maritime legislation authored by U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) and U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Florida) has been named and scheduled for introduction. The bipartisan bill, now titled the Ships for America Act, is planned to be submitted in November, sometime after Election Day.
According to the summary of the bill: “This legislative proposal represents a comprehensive approach to revitalizing the U.S. Merchant Marine by establishing national oversight and consistent funding for the U.S. maritime industry, making U.S.-flagged vessels commercially competitive in international commerce, rebuilding the U.S. shipyard industrial base, and expanding and strengthening mariner and shipyard worker recruitment, training, and retention.”
As previously reported, the SIU has worked closely with congressional and industry allies in helping craft the legislation.
Kelly and Waltz in late September participated in a joint, in-depth interview during a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) discussion titled “Rebuilding America’s Maritime Strength.” They underscored the severe economic and security risks posed by a declining U.S. maritime industry.
During the event, Kelly and Waltz emphasized that the United States fleet of oceangoing merchant vessels is not adequately equipped for a protracted conflict in the Pacific, where peer adversaries like China have highly sophisticated naval forces and nearly seventy times as many ships as the U.S. fleet.
In May, Kelly, Waltz, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and U.S. Rep. John Garamendi (D-California) released their Congressional Guidance for a National Maritime Strategy, a bipartisan report that provides a comprehensive vision for planning guidance, strategic objectives, and actionable steps to revitalize the nation’s maritime sector. The Ships for America Act is a direct result of this effort, incorporating key recommendations from the report to ensure the U.S. fleet can meet both economic and national security demands by incentivizing domestic shipbuilding, creating regulatory reforms, and providing financial support to U.S.-flagged vessels.
“If you remember what happened in 2021 and 2022, when we had bottlenecks at our seaports … it raised the cost of everything for Americans,” said Kelly. “Most of the goods that come into our country, at least about 80 percent, come on ships. So, this is a huge vulnerability. And if China wanted to leverage their dominant role in global shipping to hurt our country, to hurt Americans, they could easily do that.”
“[China] literally could turn off our entire economy by essentially choking off that shipping fleet,” said Waltz. “And, conversely, turn theirs into warships or into levers of geopolitical influence. It’s just completely unacceptable. And we have to stop admiring the problem and stop complaining about the problem. And I think, as Senator Kelly and I are trying to do, start chipping away at it and digging us out of this hole.”
“If passed, the Ships for America Act will renew key sectors in our domestic industrial base and provide thousands of Americans with new job opportunities that don’t require a four-year degree,” Kelly explained. “If we’re successful, this is going to create a lot of great-paying jobs for Americans, and also revitalize our shipbuilding industry and shipbuilding communities across the country.”
Kelly’s grandfather sailed as a merchant mariner during World War II; Kelly is a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate who also spent time at sea.
During the recent interview, Kelly was asked if he favors repealing the Jones Act, specifically the construction-related components.
He replied, “We do not need, and are not suggesting, we repeal the Jones Act. But what we do need to do is look for opportunities to collaborate with our allies and our partners across the globe. Some of the best shipbuilders in the world are in Japan and South Korea. And the congressman also mentioned India as being a very capable shipbuilder. We can collaborate with them. The current secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro, has done a lot of work to encourage shipbuilders from those countries to invest in the United States, which could help our shipyards. Our hope, through our legislation, is that we can make the business case for investing in the United States easier through things like tax credits, loan guarantees, and other incentives and partnerships. And that could get our allies making investments here. We need the capability here.”
The bill also includes substantial components aimed at mariner recruiting and retention.
Among other topics, those sections address methods for modernizing Coast Guard credentialing; modifying requirements for sea-time and training requirements for unlicensed mariners in the deck department; launching an official recruiting campaign under the purview of the Maritime Administration; and further facilitating entry into the maritime workforce by U.S. military veterans.
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