Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress finds the following: Strategic sealift, made up of Government and commercial vessels and mariners, is a critical capability for executing the maritime defense strategy and the wartime and peacetime economy of the United States. Ensuring a modern and ready capability will require significant investment, policy prioritization, and the innovation of the people of the United States. The worldwide ocean economy is worth between $3,000,000,000,000 and $6,000,000,000,000, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Yet, vessels of the United States carry less than 2 percent of United States international commercial cargoes by weight. The United States has fewer than 200 oceangoing vessels of the United States, of which only approximately 80 vessels participate in international commerce, compared with more than 5,500 Chinese documented vessels. With oceans on both sides, the United States has always been a maritime Nation. Throughout history, the strength of a maritime Nation has been directly tied to the strength of its maritime industry, and the United States won 2 world wars on the back of a strong maritime industry.

Decades of neglect by the United States Government and private industry has weakened the shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce of the United States, contributing to a declining fleet of shipping vessels of the United States to bring United States goods to market and support the United States military during wartime. Today, there are just 20 shipbuilders in the United States capable of building oceangoing vessels—down from more than 80 at the end of the Second World War.

During World War II, the United States merchant marine powered the Allies to victory with more than 10,000 oceangoing vessels of the United States. Today there are just 80 vessels of the United States engaged in international trade. The People’s Republic of China has made investments in the maritime industry a strategic priority over the past 20 years. As of 2023, shipyards in the United States had fewer than 5 shipbuilding orders for oceangoing vessels, while shipyards in the People’s Republic of China had more than 1,700 orders, according to BRS Group.

According to the Office of Naval Intelligence, the People’s Republic of China became the world’s top shipbuilding and shipping nation, boasting 230 times more shipbuilding capacity than the United States. With just 12,000 United States merchant mariners operating oceangoing vessels, the United States may not have a sufficient number of mariners to fully power the strategic sealift vessels necessary in a future prolonged conflict. The American Civil Society of Engineers assesses that the United States has a national maintenance backlog amounting to $125,000,000,000 for bridges, $163,000,000,000 for ports, and $6,800,000,000 for inland waterways.

The maritime industry is inherently international. Eighty percent of United States goods are imported by sea, of which 98 percent come into the United States on foreign documented vessels. Only 2 percent of such goods come into the United States on vessels of the United States, leaving the United States economy disproportionately dependent on oceangoing trade controlled by often adversarial foreign nations. The Nation’s ability to provide services in both international and interstate commerce is critical to national and economic defense.

Since November 2023, vessels engaged in international commerce have been threatened by the Houthis, which has threatened global supply chains, increased costs, and required naval force protection operations in the Red Sea through the United States-led Operation Prosperity Guardian that formed in December 2023. A fleet of commercial shipping vessels of the United States, crewed with citizen mariners, that is competitive in domestic and international trade, and commercial fleets participating in the United States peacetime economy enhance the United States military’s readiness, allow the United States to more strategically compete with China, and underwrites the security and survival of the United States in times of crisis and war.