Sponsors (25)
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress April 30, 2025
The bill substantially boosts U.S. maritime and national-security capacity, jobs, and infrastructure through targeted funding and domestic-priority rules, but does so by raising taxpayer exposure, increasing costs for shippers and consumers, centralizing regulatory power, and creating transitional burdens and potential trade tensions.
Military personnel, veterans, and emergency planners will get stronger strategic sealift and military-readiness capacity through expanded U.S. commercial fleet, sealift prioritization, and alignment of freight policy with defense needs.
Transportation workers, shipbuilders, and U.S. component manufacturers will see increased demand and job creation from policies prioritizing domestic shipbuilding, repair, standardized designs, and Buy America preferences.
Mariners, students, and veterans will gain improved training, career pathways, retention incentives, loan forgiveness options, and education benefits that lower barriers to maritime careers and improve workforce readiness.
Taxpayers, consumers, and importers will face higher costs because of increased federal spending, redirected customs duties and taxes, penalty/tonnage taxes, and higher freight costs from cargo-preference and domestic-priority requirements.
Exporters, shippers, and travelers will face higher shipping and travel costs and potentially reduced service options due to cargo-preference quotas, fare regulations, U.S.-built/content requirements, and limited availability of U.S.-flag vessels.
Transportation workers, small businesses, and agencies will confront increased regulatory uncertainty and centralized decisionmaking as broad designation powers, new boards, and concentrated waiver authority could politicize maritime priorities and slow actions.
Based on analysis of 24 sections of legislative text.
Creates federal leadership, funding, procurement and workforce programs to rebuild U.S. shipbuilding, expand the merchant fleet and skills pipeline, tighten foreign-supply controls, and strengthen maritime security.
Creates a whole-of-government plan and new authorities to rebuild the U.S. commercial maritime industrial base, expand and protect the merchant fleet and workforce, and strengthen maritime resiliency and national security. It establishes a Presidential Maritime Security Advisor and Board, new finance tools (a Maritime Security Trust Fund and a revolving loan fund for shipbuilding), domestic sourcing and phased cargo-carriage requirements for certain exports, a Center for Maritime Innovation with regional incubators, veteran and student benefits for mariners, and a 10-year campus modernization plan for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.