Senators and Experts Chart the Course for U.S. Shipbuilding Revitalization

Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) are leading the bipartisan push to rebuild America’s shipbuilding supply chain.

“This is the moment,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said, as he and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) called for passage of the bipartisan Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act during a Hudson Institute panel of shipbuilding experts this Wednesday.

Back in 2020, when Kelly, a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate, first entered the Senate in 2020, he made it his mission to revitalize America’s shipyards. Today, he and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) are closer than ever to achieving that goal, and it’s not a moment too soon.

America’s shipbuilding supply chain is floundering after decades of underinvestment, constructing less than one percent of commercial ships globally. Meanwhile, China claimed 82.5% of global shipbuilding orders in the first half of 2026.

“It’s a national security problem for our country, and it’s getting worse every single year,” Kelly said.

“We need some capacity in our soil,” Young said. “We need to restore our sovereignty over our shipyard industrial base because there could be very conceivable scenarios in which those shipyards and friendly countries are not controlled by our friends, or our geopolitical objectives will diverge someday.”

Kelly and Young were joined by shipbuilding experts, business executives and labor representatives who echoed the senators’ urgent call at Wednesday’s event. U.S. shipbuilding industry needs a strong domestic industrial base, a reliable workforce, and consistent demand for American-built ships, they said. The SHIPS for America Act aims to achieve all that  with the central goal of expanding the U.S.-flagged international fleet by 250 ships over the course of 10 years.  

But rebuilding the nation’s shipbuilding industry involves more than simply increasing the number of ships the U.S. wants to make. It also means rebuilding the network of American manufacturers, suppliers and workers needed to produce them.

The SHIPS for America Act, which was first introduced in December 2025, would:

• Establish a Maritime Security Board, led by a Maritime Security Advisor, to implement the National Maritime Strategy.
• Establish a Maritime Security Trust Fund to reinvest duties and fees collected from the maritime industry into maritime security programs and infrastructure supporting maritime commerce.
• Establish a 25% investment tax credit for shipyard investments.
• Establish a Shipbuilding Financial Incentives program to support domestic shipbuilding and ship repair.
• Support a Maritime Workforce Promotion and Recruitment Campaign, which allows mariners to retain their credentials through a newly established Merchant Marine Career Retention Program.

This economic activity spans a wide swath of industries. According to the United Steelworkers, one ship can require 13,000 tons of structural steel, 60,000 gallons of paint, 130 miles of electrical cable, and many other union-made products.

Young pointed to the broader manufacturing and job opportunities that could come with a stronger shipbuilding industry, especially for workers without a college degree.

“How about a role that allows you to work with your hands?” Young said. “You don’t require a college education, get trained for a very high-skill trade, make a good wage whether it’s the industrial Midwest or our other coastal areas, and solve our problems.”

Kelly highlighted the story of a woman he met at a shipyard who found a welding job ad after she was no longer satisfied working as a nanny.

“She found this advertisement to learn how to weld … And she was like, you know, I think I could do this and just loved it, was paid well, was able to buy a house,” Kelly said. “And I imagine you can repeat that kind of story over and over again in an industry that is growing. As we expand these opportunities, it could be transformative for so many people’s lives.”

But rebuilding shipbuilding capacity also requires consistent demand.

Larry Ryder, senior vice president of Business Development for naval programs at Hanwha Defense USA, said American shipbuilders are prepared to expand production if that demand exists.

“We’re ready to build,” Ryder said. “We just need that demand signal, whether it’s from the Navy, the Coast Guard or the commercial side of things.”

“It’s a national security problem for our country, and it’s getting worse every single year.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)

For the workers who would build those ships, consistency matters as well. David Sullivan, general vice president of the Eastern Territory for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said workers need to know that shipbuilding can provide a long-term career.

“You don’t have to go to college to become a shipbuilder. But to get them involved, they have to see a light at the end of the tunnel. And that light hasn’t been there for 40 years,” Sullivan said.

With as much as Americans have to gain if the SHIPS for America Act is passed, it’s no surprise that the bill has found strong support across the political spectrum.

“We’ve been working with the majority of Cabinet members on this, and they’ve gotten very comfortable with this,” Young said. “We have received thousands of comments from technical assistants. The administration has bought in, and that’s really exciting to me.”

While Congress considers the SHIPS for America Act, elements of the legislation have been integrated into the House version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, but the funding package excludes the proposed 250-ship strategic commercial fleet goal.

“The fact that there are pieces included in the House version of the NDAA, to me, means everything is up for negotiation at this point,” Kelly said. “The goal would be to get [the strategic commercial fleet] in there and then figure out how you’re gonna pay for it.”

“You’ve got to eventually move to a place where it’s not just U.S. flag ship and U.S. crew, it’s also U.S. built,” Bryan Clark, a Hudson Institute senior fellow, said.

That vision is central to the SHIPS for America Act. By supporting domestic shipyards, their workforce, and the suppliers that support them, the legislation seeks to rebuild a maritime industry that has become increasingly dependent on foreign production.

“Make phone calls, send letters, show up, tell people. This is the moment,” Kelly said.

Tell your legislators to support the SHIPS for America Act via this petition. You can also watch the whole Hudson Institute event on YouTube: