Ranking Member Courtney Statement on New Shipbuilding Executive Order
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement after President Trump signed an Executive Order, “Restoring Maritime Dominance.”
“As Ranking Member of the Seapower Subcommittee, I am willing to work with any knowledgeable person to improve Naval fleet readiness, invest in the maritime workforce, and accelerate shipbuilding to meet our inventory goals as well as our production commitment to AUKUS. Today’s Executive Order – coupled with the first-ever White House Office of Shipbuilding, led by former Seapower Subcommittee staff member Ian Bennitt, whose leadership I applaud – signals the Administration’s interest in achieving those shared goals.
“Adding shipbuilding to DOGE’s agenda is highly questionable given its admitted blunders with the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Social Security Administration, to name a few. I have been involved in the auditing reform efforts at the Department of Defense for years and support good-faith efforts led by experts to help the Pentagon pass an audit, but DOGE is not going to create welders, electricians, and outside machinists through the tools they have, which is exactly what we need to build on the momentum we are seeing in the shipbuilding industry.
“Unfortunately, this initial Executive Order missed the opportunity to implement an immediate high impact solution — that shipbuilders, the Navy, and bipartisan lawmakers, including myself, have supported for months — to address rising labor and material costs. SAWS, the Shipyard Accountability and Workforce Support plan, with a stroke of a pen, would elevate the market value of metal trade jobs which has to happen if we are serious about restoring our nation’s shipbuilding industrial base. The incremental ‘wage improvement’ Congress approved in December gave a boost to rectifying some of those funding shortfalls, but SAWS is the systematic, long-term fix we need to build more Navy ships ‘very fast, very soon.’ Hopefully this will not be the final shipbuilding Executive Order and the compelling case for SAWS will prevail.
“Today’s Executive Order also comes amid the President’s back-and-forth trade war, which is undermining the progress this order seeks to achieve. The President's tariffs on steel and aluminum will increase the cost of contracts paid by the Government – and the taxpayer – and delay commercial contracts, inevitably risking shipyards business. That doesn’t add up for a President who seeks to ‘revitalize’ our domestic shipbuilding sector.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Seapower Subcommittee to conduct a healthy review of any forthcoming legislative proposals and urge the Administration to focus on real solutions to boosting commercial and military shipbuilding efforts.”