Today, U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Todd Young, R-Ind., led a bipartisan group of their colleagues in calling on President Donald Trump to ensure that implementation of his executive order “Restoring America’s Shipbuilding Dominance” strengthens and revitalizes the Great Lakes shipbuilding industry. Specifically, the senators are calling on the Trump Administration to establish Maritime Prosperity Zones in regions outside the traditional coastal shipbuilding centers, including the Great Lakes.
“We share your goal of a revitalized shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing industry and believe that the hardworking people and dynamic economies of the Great Lakes region will be essential to achieving it,” the senators wrote in a letter to President Trump. “The Great Lakes are already home to shipbuilders, manufacturers, steel producers, casting and forging, and maritime industry suppliers. In many ways, the Great Lakes states are well positioned for sustained national investment that would build on the current shipbuilding and manufacturing capacity in the region.”
In the letter, the lawmakers lay out a five-point recommendation plan for the Trump Administration to take into consideration when establishing Maritime Prosperity Zones. These include the following:
• Define Great Lakes Prosperity Zones by Activity: By looking at industry activity, including shipyards, their suppliers, and customers engaged in the maritime industry, rather than just geography, prosperity zones can better capture and support the full scope of the Great Lakes shipbuilding industry, workforce, and supply chains.
• Support the creation of a Great Lakes Shipbuilding Consortium: Groups of shipyards and their Great Lakes-based supply chain partners are forming a Great Lakes Shipbuilding Consortium to collaborate on their work on government vessels. The senators recommend commissioning and funding a study led by the consortium to better support investments in infrastructure, workforce, and technology.
• Support public and private investment into shipyards, ports, supply chain modernization, and industrial technology: Continue federal investments in modernizing aging shipyards and strengthening shipyards’ supplier base.
• Create the conditions for sustained success: Streamline and increase competition in military new construction and repair contracting procedure, as well as enforce existing Buy America requirements.
• Expand federal investment in workforce training and apprenticeships: Support targeted federal grants to high schools, community colleges, trade schools, and union training centers in the Great Lakes region to expand apprenticeship programs in welding, electrical systems, naval architecture, marine engineering, and precision manufacturing.
Baldwin and a group of bipartisan colleagues introduced the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act, comprehensive legislation to revitalize the United States shipbuilding and commercial maritime industries. Baldwin also backed an investigation into China’s unfair trade practices in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors that exposed their decades-long effort to undermine American workers.
The letter is supported by Fincantieri Marinette Marine.
In addition to Sens. Baldwin and Young, the letter is also co-signed by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Minn.; Jim Banks, R-Ind.; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Jon Husted, R-Ohio; and Elissa Slotkin, D-Minn.
Full text of the letter is available here.
