Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2025)

The Final Word: US Shipbuilding

THE U.S. SHIPS FOR AMERICA ACT …

IN A CORKED BOTTLE

Image courtesy Ricky Hutter/AmTech s a result of a major White and our declining Naval power. er money spent, nothing has changed.

House of? ce wake-up call The U.S. Navy problems aside, our Including the course of this new legisla- or Executive Order 14269 concern in this Op-Ed is American tion. It does not paint revitalization, it

Adetermining it is time to commercial shipping and shipbuild- paints restriction. start building ships again, Washington ing efforts. What is disturbing about

DC announced America’s maritime in- this legislation is the fact that DOD, SHIPS for America Act dustry has been “dangerously declining” MARAD and the GAO all realized the In April of this year, Senator Mark and with that decline we have allowed problem decades ago and issued The Kelly (D-AZ), along with two other

China to become the dominant force in Way to Increase U.S. Shipbuilding Pro- Senators, reintroduced the SHIPS for global shipbuilding. Hard to believe that ductivity in 1976 [https://www.gao.gov/ America Act (hereafter the ACT) in the for nearly 65 years we have overlooked assets/b-118779-095788.pdf]. U.S. Senate. The initial “Act” was ? rst how Japan ? rst got ahead of us or the introduced in December 2024. The re- fact that Korea took the lead not soon af- We knew; Washington, DC knew; and introduction of two bills was reportedly ter Japan. All that progress was ignored the Navy Knew. due to the legislation being presented prior to anyone worrying about China. to the new Congress. However, the re-

What may look like a Rip Van Winkle The only surprises are who didn’t visions added to the legislation indi- moment may actually be a four-alarm know. From that 1976 report and the cate other reasons and in? uences. One ? re raised by current geopolitical events $29.8 billion dollars of 1970 era taxpay- thing you can bet on, more revisions 42 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • June 2025

MR #6 (34-45).indd 42 MR #6 (34-45).indd 42 5/31/2025 7:56:47 PM5/31/2025 7:56:47 PM