Washington Waves: July 15, 2024
Washington D.C.—Citing the “single-greatest threat” from China, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the U.S. must reinvest in its maritime sector and begin building new ships and shipyards at home. Johnson noted that 80 percent of global trade is conducted over the oceans, and China currently has 232-times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States.
“We need to re-shore and safe-shore our supply chains, and restore our domestic manufacturing and building capabilities, while safeguarding our military from another sequestration,” the Louisiana Republican said during a major foreign policy speech to the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington.
One day later, Johnson’s comments were welcomed during a House panel’s roundtable on reinvigorating the domestic maritime industry, specifically the U.S.-flag fleet and shipbuilding.
“We completely agree with the speaker,” USA Maritime Chairman Christian Johnsen told members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. Other recommendations from stakeholders at that meeting included continued support of the Jones Act, incentives to encourage commercial cargo to be shipped on vessels owned and crewed by Americans, creation of investment and innovation zones, additional resources for training American mariners and a modern credentials process. Several of the stakeholders challenged lawmakers to think big and bold in making U.S. maritime a priority again.
Energy And Water Bill
With members from both parties predicting the measure has no future as written, a divided House Appropriations Committee advanced its fiscal year (FY) 2025 Energy and Water Development spending bill that provides $9.96 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. According to the committee, that amount is $180.2 million below the enacted program level for the current fiscal year but $2.7 billion above President Joe Biden’s budget request. Passed by a vote of 30 to 26, the bill now goes to the full House for a floor vote.
“The bill prioritizes advancing and completing high-priority, ongoing work,” the committee stated.
Other key takeaways include $3.147 billion for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, $423 million for construction projects on the inland waterways system, advancing the most critical ongoing projects. Republicans described the funding for the Corps as robust. Democrats, however, warned the bill included too many partisan provisions to ever be signed into law. Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), expressed hope that a bipartisan agreement on all FY 2025 spending bills could be reached by the end of this calendar year but conceded that decision may be up to the winner of the November presidential election.
Cole offered the following advice to the winner: “Get your business done this year if you can and let the next Congress start off with a clean slate.”
As the House panel was wrapping up work on its FY 2025 spending bills, the Senate Appropriations Committee scheduled a markup on its first bill of the current cycle.
Mariner Shortage
Amid a global mariner shortage, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) needs more mariners to support its fleet of research and survey ships, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO). To respond to that shortage, GAO recommends that NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) implement a workforce planning process that covers both professional mariners and the Commissioned Officer Corps. GAO cited NOAA’s own data that show recruitment and retention varied for both mariners and officer corps the last five fiscal years. Separations outpaced hiring in some of those years, the watchdog agency found. In its report, GAO cited factors such as work-life balance and pay for mariner recruitment and retention challenges as well as actions taken by OMAO to address those issues.
Maritime Security Conference
The National Maritime Security Advisory Committee has scheduled a series of meetings August 13–14 in conjunction with the 11th Annual Maritime Security West Conference in San Diego, Calif. The agenda includes discussions concerning updates to Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) 03-03, Active Shooter/Active Threat in the Maritime Environment, Unmanned Systems in the Maritime Environment and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Cybersecurity in the Marine Transportation System.
Open to the public with no registration to the conference required, the meetings are to begin at 2:45 p.m. PST on August 13 and 9 a.m. PST on the next day in the Garden conference room at the Paradise Point Resort, 1404 Vacation Road, San Diego, CA 92109. The meetings also will be held virtually with a limited number of lines available on a first-come, first-based basis. Pre-registration is required for virtual attendance. To ensure time for committee review, comments should be submitted by August 9, preferably through https://www.regulations.gov under Docket No. USCG-2024-0591. For additional information, including instructions on joining the meeting virtually, and to request special accommodations, contact Ryan Owens at 202-302-6565 or ryan.f.owens.uscg.mil by 1 p.m. EST August 9.
