Sec. 3. Sense of Congress
903 words·~4 min read·
/bill/119/s/1541/is/section-3A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that the United States must— create a more favorable domestic and global maritime environment for vessels of the United States engaged in international commerce, shipbuilding, ship repair, maritime logistics, the maritime workforce, and naval power, contributing to assured access to the world’s oceans free from coercion from strategic competitors and asymmetric adversaries; increase domestic shipbuilding and ship repair capacity, with programs and policies that enable the growth of United States shipyards and the maritime industrial base, enhance military sealift capacity, expand the United States maritime workforce, and enhance national security; revitalize the international fleet of vessels of the United States and foster a comparative advantage for the United States through targeted incentives and regulatory reforms to make the fleet competitive with international carriers and to gain a sustainable share of the global maritime market in order to bolster supply chains, strengthen economic security, and lower prices, while protecting the United States economy from economic coercion; take all measures necessary to ensure that sufficient military, civil, and commercial resources will be available with assured access to meet defense deployment needs and essential economic activities for our Nation in times of crisis, war, or peace; recognize that a vibrant commercial shipbuilding industry provides supply chain resiliencies and creates economies of scale that improve military, Coast Guard, and Government shipbuilding and support military operations through strategic sealift to defend the freedom of the seas; nurture the comparative advantages of the United States to innovate to better compete in the global maritime marketplace, grow the maritime workforce, and create a favorable environment for investments to build modern maritime facilities and world-class academic institutions; ensure better coordination between Federal agencies, including the Maritime Administration, the United States Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, the Federal Maritime Commission, and all other Federal agencies with a maritime nexus, to protect, regulate, and support the United States maritime industry, resolve disputes, and implement a whole-of-Government national maritime strategy; recognize that, while a strong Navy is the surest guarantee of peace, building the Navy, sustaining the Navy, and supplying the Navy is founded on a robust commercial industrial base; establish reliable long-term demand signals for, and investments in, oceangoing commercial vessels that are built in the United States, documented under the laws of the United States, and crewed by United States mariners; evaluate past and present maritime efforts to take actions to revitalize the United States maritime industry; strengthen the United States intercoastal and domestic trade fleet, which is the foundation upon which a revitalized United States-documented shipping and domestic shipbuilding industry will be built; recognize the important role that the support craft, passenger, and fishing vessel fleet play in the United States maritime industry; encourage the shipping of commercial cargo on vessels of the United States, with the aim of growing the size and carrying capacity of the international fleet of vessels of the United States; grow the shipping capacity of vessels of the United States and guarantee United States Government cargo during peacetime; develop a whole-of-Government effort to expand, develop, and protect the maritime workforce; recognize the need for more workers in the maritime sector and stimulate growth in the United States maritime and shipbuilding industries, including by increasing access to early maritime education, commissioning national marketing campaigns to demonstrate how United States shipbuilding, United States-documented shipping, and maritime workers are critical to national security, and implementing workforce accelerator programs; remove barriers to training mariners, including reevaluating Coast Guard training requirements regarding faculty credentials, instructional facility designs, sea time requirements, and other identified barriers, consistent with international treaty obligations; expand and nurture a robust mariner workforce that enhances the national security and strategic sealift readiness of the United States by increasing the number of United States mariners and improving existing pathways and establishing new pathways for new, current, and former merchant mariners to go to sea; recognize that the United States Merchant Marine Academy and our State maritime academies are critical to training the next generation of licensed officers and engineers on vessels of the United States; invest and innovate in domestic shipbuilding, ship repair, and the shipping capabilities and capacity of vessels of the United States to advance the power and influence of the maritime industry of the United States; drive multi-stakeholder research, development, assessment, and deployment of emerging marine technologies and best practices related to the maritime transportation system to ensure United States leadership in next-generation shipbuilding, ship repair, and maritime logistics; drive modern business and manufacturing approaches, such as innovative maritime logistics, clean fuels, and advanced nuclear energy, human-machine teaming, additive manufacturing, and other advanced technologies; review and update regulations governing vessel design and engineering, vessel and facility operation, and merchant mariner credentialing, in order to revitalize the United States maritime industry; seek mutually beneficial relationships with treaty allies and strategic partners to grow the domestic shipping and shipbuilding industries of the United States and to share the burden of providing freedom of navigation on the high seas, while de-risking the United States maritime domain from the People’s Republic of China, foreign countries of concern, and asymmetric or emerging maritime threats; harden critical maritime infrastructure and networks, and incrementally replace infrastructure built by foreign adversaries with domestic-built and allied-built infrastructure; and promote the values of the United States for freedom of the seas, worker safety and quality of life, environmental stewardship, and the resilience of our oceans, seas, and inland waterways.