A strong U.S. maritime industry is essential to the nation, and the Ships for America Act is a timely, viable way to bolster it.
Pro-maritime U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) delivered those messages Nov. 21 at an industry gathering in the nation’s capital. Attendees included SIU Vice President Contracts George Tricker, Assistant Vice President Pat Vandegrift, Director of Manpower Mark von Siegel, Political and Legislative Director Brian Schoeneman, and Political Consultant Terry Turner.
Kelly is a co-sponsor of the Ships for America Act, the most comprehensive maritime legislation put together in decades. The bill was expected to be formally introduced Dec. 18 or 19 (at press time). The SIU worked with industry allies for more than a year to help craft the legislation.
A former merchant mariner, astronaut and a Navy veteran, Kelly also is the grandson of a World War II U.S. Merchant Mariner. He told the audience in Washington, D.C., that his lifelong familiarity with, and support for, American maritime has led him to firmly conclude “we need to seriously and urgently reorient our maritime industry…. It’s an issue that Congress and multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat, have tried to grasp, but also sort of ignored for decades. Now, we can’t afford to ignore this any longer.”
The senator compared U.S.-flag fleet data from the mid-1980s, when he graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, to today. He pointed out that the size of the U.S. fleet is dwarfed by China’s. Kelly also lamented the gradual decrease in the number of U.S. shipyards.
“Despite the decline in size of our maritime industry, we’re still facing a shortage of mariners that we need to man and crew these vessels, and the consequences of these failures are serious,” he stated. “With oceans to the east and west, America has always been a maritime nation. More than 80% of goods imported into this country come by sea, making the maritime domain critical to our economy, and just as importantly, maritime transportation logistics are critical to our national security in a prolonged conflict overseas. We’re going to have to rely on the U.S. Merchant Marine to provide the sealift we need to support overseas operations, and we need a more robust maritime industrial base here at home to make sure we have the shipbuilding and ship repair capacity to meet the needs of the Navy and other government shipbuilders.”
Kelly said that such a broad and complex set of challenges “requires us to comprehensively rethink our national maritime strategy, and so over the past year, my team and I and others on Capitol Hill have worked with many of you and countless others throughout the maritime industry to develop comprehensive legislation to rebuild the U.S. maritime industry. For months now, I’ve worked closely with (original co-sponsor) Rep. Mike Waltz (R) of Florida, who will be the incoming National Security Advisor for the president-elect.”
The senator described four main components of the Ships for America Act.
“First, it works to make sure that U.S.-flag vessel costs are competitive in international commerce,” he explained. “We provide tax incentives for private companies to consider shipping cargo on U.S.-flagged vessels and restore the cargo preference and agency reimbursement requirements that Congress undid in 2012. We also propose regulatory reforms, like looking for efficiencies to improve the way that the Coast Guard regulates vessels, and evaluate whether there are ways to allow vessels to flag into the fleet more efficiently. Lastly, we established a new program called the Strategic Commercial Fleet, which would complement the existing Maritime Security Program by bringing 250 new U.S.-flag vessels into the fleet over the next 10 years, by providing financial support to offset operating differences for the ocean carriers who provide the best value to our economic and national security.”
He then turned to the importance of domestic shipbuilding capability, and outlined how the Ships for America Act will promote it.
Finally, Kelly described methods to attract and retain maritime personnel.
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