Sponsors (143)
Official title: To support the national defense and economic security of the United States by supporting vessels, ports, and shipyards of the United States and the U.S. maritime workforce.
Introduced May 1, 2025 by Trent Kelly · Last progress May 1, 2025
The bill trades significant federal investment, domestic preferences, and new authorities to rebuild U.S. shipbuilding, maritime workforce, and national sealift readiness against higher costs for shippers and taxpayers, increased regulatory and compliance burdens, and potential trade or rights‑of‑process tensions.
U.S. shipbuilders, shipyards, and maritime manufacturers will get sustained demand, tax credits, loans, and other incentives that lower capital costs and spur domestic production and jobs.
U.S. military and national security planners, plus civilian maritime operators, will gain stronger surge sealift, vetted fleets, and clearer authorities to block or limit hostile foreign maritime actors, improving readiness and supply‑chain security.
Current and prospective mariners, academy students, and coastal communities will benefit from expanded workforce development, training pathways, credentialing support, hiring pathways, and targeted retention/relocation assistance.
Taxpayers face materially higher federal spending, reduced Treasury receipts (from tax credits and revenue redirections), and increased deficit risk from new appropriations and long‑term credits.
Shippers, importers, and ultimately consumers could pay higher shipping, import, and logistics costs because of domestic‑preference rules, cargo‑preference mandates, new per‑ton taxes/penalties, and U.S‑flag carriage requirements.
Trade partners, foreign suppliers, and U.S. firms tied to foreign yards or components may be subject to designations, penalties, and bans that could provoke trade tensions, retaliatory measures, and disruptions to existing supply chains.
Based on analysis of 26 sections of legislative text.
Builds U.S. shipbuilding and sealift capacity via a Maritime Security Advisor/Board, trust fund, loan and tax incentives, domestic-content rules for crude exports, and workforce/academy support.
Creates a whole-of-government strategy and new institutions to rebuild U.S. commercial shipbuilding, repair, and strategic sealift capacity; establishes a Maritime Security Advisor and Board, a Maritime Security Trust Fund, new credit and loan programs, incentives and domestic-content requirements for vessels used in trade (including a new vessel investment tax credit), and expanded workforce, academy, and research programs. It also conditions most crude oil exports shipped by vessel on an escalating share carried on qualifying U.S.-built/flagged vessels, expands loan and grant authorities for shipyards, funds maritime innovation and incubators, and adds merchant mariners to certain federal education and benefit programs.