American Shipbuilding Association Honors
Congressman Herb Bateman
Cynthia L. Brown, President of the American Shipbuilding Association, announced on June 20th the establishment of the Herbert H. Bateman Award. The award, named in honor of its first recipient, Congressman Herb Bateman (R-VA), will be presented to a Member of Congress, Administration official, or industry leader who personifies Congressman Bateman’s years of consistent, outstanding leadership and support in strengthening America’s shipbuilding industry, and thus, America.
In an award ceremony honoring Congressman Bateman on Capitol Hill, Brown noted that, “there has been no legislation enacted to strengthen the American shipbuilding industry during Congressman Bateman’s tenure that has not been sponsored by or had his active support.”
“Congressman Bateman has worked tirelessly to rebuild America’s naval forces, and he has been a consistent fighter for the three pillars of the Merchant Marine Act – requiring that ships serving our domestic and international trade be built, crewed and owned by Americans. In this regard, he has defeated every attempt to weaken these laws which preserve the U.S. defense shipbuilding industrial base.”
Ms. Brown, speaking for the entire industry, said of Congressman Bateman, “It is our sincere hope that your example will inspire public officials and industry representatives to your outstanding level of leadership in support of the American shipbuilding industry so that your legacy will be passed down to generations to come.”
Appropriations Conferees Urged to Restore Ships
The American Shipbuilding Association (ASA) recently sent a letter to the House and Senate Conferees on the FY’01 Defense Appropriations Bill outlining the industry’s alarm with the continued historically low rate of naval ship production, and to urge support in conference to fully fund two LPD-17’s, one LHD-8, advanced procurement increases for DDG-51, and restoring cuts made to the budget request for the DD-21 program.
The current build rate will drop the fleet to 250 ships or fewer as older ships are retired. If the Navy is going to maintain a bare bones fleet of 300-ships, a steady procurement rate of 12 ships per year is now required for 16 years, just to make up for the decade of deficit ship procurement. Unfortunately, the President's budget requested included only eight ships this year, and currently two of these are at risk in the defense conference committee. The Navy's budget for future years continues to deteriorate in spite of the regional Commanders-in-Chief’s repeated testimony to Congress that today’s fleet of 315 ships is inadequate to meet our Nation’s military strategy or urgent operational needs. These budget constraints emphasize the importance of fully funding the Navy’s shipbuilding programs in the FY’01 conference committee.
ASA is also asking the conferees to transfer the budget request of $339 million for one ADC (X) ship to the National Defense Sealift Fund (NDSF), as authorized by the House Armed Services Committee. The NDSF was established to fund sealift and other auxiliary ships such as the ADC (X) class of ships. Funding the ACD (X) class of ships in the NDSF account would relieve some budgetary pressures on the Navy’s SCN account, which is making funding of warships extremely difficult and is threatening efficient production rates for the ACD (X) class of ships.
ASA also urges the conferees to include language in the conference report clarifying the Senate intent to establish a revolving fund for airlift, separate from the NDSF. Although the Senate bill, S. 2593, recommends establishing a new revolving fund for airlift, the accompanying report states that the Committee recommends the establishment of a joint sealift and airlift fund that would be named the National Defense Mobility Fund. While ASA has no objection to a separate revolving fund being established for airlift, it strongly opposes a joint revolving fund for ships and planes. Whereas billions of dollars are budgeted for airlift annually, the same cannot be said for sealift, even though 95 percent of all military hardware and cargo in an emergency must go by sea. Any merger of these funds would result in even fewer dollars budgeted to meet the Nation's sealift shortfalls.
Senate Commerce Committee Acts on Maritime Bills
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on June 15th reported S. 2487, The Maritime Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001.
The committee overwhelmingly supported an amendment offered by Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) to increase the Title XI Ship Loan Guarantee program from the Administration’s request of $2 million to $50 million. This funding is critical to finance commercial ship construction in the U.S. and to strengthen the defense shipbuilding industrial base.
The committee also approved by voice vote S. 1510, a bill to amend the Passenger Vessel Services Act sponsored by Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ). At the mark up, Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) stated that although the revised form of S.1510 was an improvement over the original bill, he still harbored serious concerns with the legislation and stated that it needed serious revisions before it could move forward in the legislative process.
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) also spoke against S.1510. She stated that more could be done to encourage an all American cruise ship industry as provided in her bill, S.2564, which would create tax incentives and tax parity for American cruise ships to compete on a level playing field with foreign-built and operated cruise ships. Senator Snowe strongly advocated the need for U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, and U.S.-crewed ships as opposed to S.1510’s proposal to bring foreign-built ships into America’s coastwise trade.
Senators Fault Secretary of Defense for
Delay in Shipbuilding Report
Recently, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Charles Robb (D-VA) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense William Cohen, admonishing the Secretary for failure to provide a report on the long-range shipbuilding requirements of the Department of Defense as required by Public Law 106-65. Senator Robb sponsored the provision requiring the report in the FY’00 Defense Authorization Act.
Congress directed that the report be provided to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees no later than February 1, 2000. Yet to date, neither committee has received the report nor has the Defense Secretary requested a time extension for completion.
Sea Power Forum Calls for Rebuilding America's Navy
At the June 19th forum “American Sea Power in the 21st Century” held on Capitol Hill, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK), Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA), Navy Under Secretary Jerry Hultin, Marine Corps Commandant James Jones, and Bath Iron Works President Allan Cameron spoke on the importance of sea power and the need to rebuild America’s Navy.
In his opening remarks, Senator Stevens supported a 300-ship Navy, and called for an increase in the shipbuilding rate to a minimum of 10 ships per year. Congressman Dicks told the forum how he would like to see a 350 to 360-ship fleet, but noted that at the current shipbuilding rate the Navy’s fleet would drop to 250-ships in a few years. Both Senator Stevens and Congressman Dicks expressed their support for incremental funding as a means to expand the numbers of naval ships in the current budget environment, and to avoid large spikes in the Navy’s shipbuilding and conversion account.
Under Secretary Hultin called upon Americans to make the connection between a global economy and the negative impact on prices and our prosperity if the Nation has inadequate naval forces to maintain world stability. If the public is made aware of the economic gains made because of American sea power, a groundswell of support will ensure to rebuild our naval forces. General James Jones concurred with Under Secretary Hultin on the connection between investment in American sea power and the economy, and stated that every ten years the U.S. has to, “relearn the fact that we are a maritime nation.”
Allan Cameron shared how industry was utilizing advanced technologies to reduce the operating cost of ships to save taxpayers and the Navy money. Mr. Cameron specifically sighted the design effort for the LPD-17 with the Avondale alliance for how it, “has eliminated more that four billion dollars in future operations and support costs – scarce funds that can be applied to building more ships to meet the nation’s requirements.” Additionally, Mr. Cameron noted that the current destroyer procurement rate of three ships per year was the very minimal necessary to maintain a 116-ship surface combatant force.
Single-Hull Tanker Leaks Oil
Demonstrating the growing need for environmentally safe double-hull replacement tankers, a single-hull oil tanker owned by Exxon/Mobil subsidiary SeaRiver Maritime was ordered back to Valdez marine terminal on May 22 after developing a leak. The SeaRiver Long Beach was about 10 minutes into its journey from the marine terminal when crewmembers form an escort vessel spotted an oil sheen in its wake. The U.S. Coast Guard ordered the tanker back to the terminal, where divers discovered a three-inch hairline fracture in the center cargo tank. A nearby salmon hatchery was sealed with a protective oil boom for protection.
Industry News
Naval – Industry R&D Partnership Conference
The Office of Naval Research is sponsoring its first R&D partnership conference August 9-11, 2000 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. Ms. Cynthia L. Brown, President of the American Shipbuilding Association, will serve as moderator for the Shipbuilding Technology Panel.
The panel will include: VADM Pete Nanos, Commander Naval Sea Systems Command; RADM Charles Young, Director for Submarine Technology; RADM George Yount, Deputy Commander for Engineering; Mr. Ray Lisiewski, Deputy Program Executive for Surface Strike; Ms. Gaye Evans, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy; Mr. Michael Toner, President of Electric Boat; Dr. Lawrence Cavaiola, President Litton Ship Systems Full Service Center; Mr. Robert L. Gunter, Vice President of Engineering Newport News Shipbuilding.
For more information and registration information log on to www.navalranddconf.com.
EB Plans to Close Avenel Facility by Year-end
Electric Boat announced that it plans to shut down its facility in Avenel, N. J., Electro Dynamic, by the end of the year because of a declining workload.
"For many years, our Avenel facility has maintained and advanced its reputation for excellence in the design and manufacture of quiet rotating machinery, motors and fans for the U. S. Navy," said EB President Mike Toner, who announced the shutdown at an all-hands meeting at Avenel.
"Our employees at Avenel have done an outstanding job and contributed significantly to the success of General Dynamics and the Navy," said Toner. "Unfortunately, we don't believe there is enough work - current or projected - to keep the facility going."
Electric Boat currently employs 111 people in Avenel, about one third of whom are eligible to retire. A limited number of employees will be offered positions in Groton, where Avenel's work will be consolidated. The remainder of the work force will be offered career-transition assistance.
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