The SHIPS for America Act Reintroduced – New Era of Maritime Bipartisanship
What inspires mortal political enemies to team up in these divided times? American maritime and a nation in desperate need, that’s what. The Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS)for America Act that we wrote about in January of last year was reintroduced by US senators Todd Young (R-IN) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) along with cosponsors John Fetterman (D-PA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on April 30, 2025.
Tammy Baldwin 
John Fetterman 
Mark Kelly 
Lisa Murkowski 
Rick Scott 
Todd Young
The comprehensive legislation would be a landmark effort to revitalize American shipbuilding and domestic commercial maritime more broadly. The bipartisan act was originally introduced in December 2024 but is now updated and split into two introduced bills—SHIPS for America Act of 2025 and Building Ships in America Act of 2025 (S. 1536 and S. 1541 respectively). Companion legislation was also introduced in the US House of Representatives by Trent Kelly (R-MS-1) and John Garamendi (D-CA-8) the following Thursday.
“America has been a maritime nation since our founding, and seapower was a significant contributor to our rise to being the most powerful nation on earth. Unfortunately, the bottom line now is America needs more ships,” says US Naval Academy graduate and Senator Young in a public statement. Unusual for senators, both Kelly and Young have professional backgrounds in maritime. Young focuses his statements on competition with China. According to him, a mere 80 US-flagged vessels are currently engaged in international commerce compared to China’s 5,500.
“Shipbuilding is a national security priority and a stopgap against foreign threats and coercion,” continues Young’s statement. “Our bill will revitalize the US maritime industry, grow our shipbuilding capacity, rebuild America’s shipyard industrial base, and support nationwide workforce development in this industry. This legislation is critical to our warfighting capabilities and keeping pace with China.”
“After decades of dangerously neglecting our shipbuilding industry, we’re finally doing something about it,” said Senator Kelly, a US Navy veteran and the first US Merchant Marine Academy graduate to serve in Congress. “The SHIPS for America Act is the most ambitious effort in a generation to revitalize the US shipbuilding and commercial maritime industries and counter China’s dominance over the oceans. Building and staffing more US-flagged ships will create good-paying American jobs, make our supply chains more resilient, lower costs, and strengthen our ability to resupply our military at times of war. We’ll keep working with our colleagues in Congress, this administration, and our partners in the industry to make our country safer and competitive by passing the SHIPS for America Act.”
Executive Branch Blessing and Key Takeaways
These efforts appear boosted by President Trump’s April 9 executive order to revitalize US maritime power. Central to the order is the creation of a Maritime Action Plan (MAP) and the new office of Maritime and Industrial Capacity at the National Security Council in the White House. The order also cites Chinese competition as a primary motivator. According to the order, .2% of the world’s ships are built by the US compared to the 74% built in China. Zero percent of shipping containers are built in the US with 96% in China while none of ship-to-shore cranes in the US are domestically built (80% are Chinese made).
The two acts are daunting pieces of legislation to completely summarize herein, but several key provisions stand out. The acts codify the president’s order to establish a maritime security advisor within the White House to lead an interagency Maritime Security Board to implement a National Maritime Strategy. Believe it or not, the United States of America does not have a national maritime strategy like this at this time. We’ve been winging it across dozens of scattered bureaucratic agencies and public sector interests for decades now—rudderless, one might say. Objectively horrifying and dangerous is another way to put it.
The acts also establish a goal to expand the US-flagged international fleet by 250 ships over the next decade via a Strategic Commercial Fleet Program. If we use Young’s previously cited number of 5,500 Chinese-flagged ships, this means our 330 ships (the 80 we reportedly have now plus the 250 new ships) will increase from 1% of the size of the Chinese fleet to 6% by 2035. In addition to a raft of investment-based strategies are long needed reforms to the mariner credentialing system that can be a nightmare for industry professionals to navigate.
Additionally, the proposed legislation would implement Jones Act-like regulations to include a percentage of international shipping. The Jones Act applies to all intracoastal commercial maritime and mandates these ships are made domestically with American materials, crewed by citizens, owned by American companies, and fly the stars and stripes. Steve Forbes of all people descends from on-high regularly to personally pen op-eds calling to end the Jones Act (here in 2021 and here in 2025) as a living manifestation of the brilliant thought leadership that sold off our maritime abroad in the first place.
“The quicker the Jones Act is deep-sixed, the better,” the 77-year-old media mogul wrote this year with cutesy maritime puns. If the Forbes generation of leadership had its way, our domestic commercial maritime would’ve been sold off decades ago, like everything else. His pure hatred of the Jones Act and the last stronghold of true American maritime strength seems to be the only way the man can maintain an erection these days.
One hears endlessly about how divided American politics are these days, but not when it comes to supporting an exciting new era of maritime reform and strength. We should’ve banded together to enact this legislation 50 years ago, Chinese threat or no. Frankly, the Forbes generation of leadership that sold off our legendary, prosperous civilization building, World War II winning maritime to the Chinese in the first place should be ashamed of themselves. But that a bipartisan coalition of otherwise political enemies are rallying around the SHIPS for America movement is heartening to see. Perhaps we should dub those who makeup this diverse pro maritime group “The Crew”. In nature, as in policy, the turn of a tide is subtle and often barely perceived. However, once that tide is underway, it can be an unstoppable rip. May this new tide flush out the old thinking that created this predicament and bring a new reality of US maritime prosperity.
For those who want to get into the nitty gritty, a reader friendly summary of the legislation is available here.The Maritime Executive published a good summary of the changes in the 2025 legislation when compared to the first 2024 introduction. Legal firm Holland and Knight also published a useful summary of the legislation’s key takeaways.
