OPINION:
For the first time since Richard Nixon was in the White House, there is a national consensus that we must revive the nation’s strategically important maritime industry. Driving that consensus is an understanding that the nation’s economy operates at the whim of those who have the ships — in a word, China.
China dominates the sector with its state-controlled shipping and shipbuilding, backed by a global network of strategically placed ports. The U.S. let this state of affairs continue far too long, but fortunately, President Trump has begun the steps necessary to change it.
The president has led the effort with executive orders and his personal political capital, notably calling for a maritime revival in his joint session speech to Congress in March 2025. This is commendable, and he’s drawn considerable support on Capitol Hill, but like all good initiatives, it needs an additional push.
Given the stalled legislative efforts to memorialize this generational effort, the time is now for the president to propose legislation, using the authority given to him in the Constitution — specifically, the Recommendation Clause, under Article II, Section 3.
James Madison in Federalist No. 47 asserted that the Constitution gives the president significant agency in the legislative process. President George Washington submitted three proposals to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a blitz of bills during his first 100 days in 1933, reacting to the Great Depression, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower reluctantly created the Office of Congressional Relations to assist in working with Congress in legislating.
The current effort to revive the nation’s maritime industrial base began in the spring of 2022 in response to supply chain and shipping backlogs evident during the COVID recovery. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have only hardened the national consensus and resolve. The signature outcome of this effort was the bipartisan/bicameral SHIPS for America Act — a comprehensive bill by necessity, given the sad state of the nation’s maritime industry.
That legislation was first presented to Congress in December 2024 at a time when no meaningful legislative action was possible. Then, following Mr. Trump’s April 2025 executive order Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance, Congress again introduced a refined SHIPS for America Act later that same month.
Yet now, over a year later, Congress is again dead in the water on this historic legislation.
Given national security imperatives, it’s time for Mr. Trump to propose that Congress take up a new bill — and given his penchant for self-branding, he could call it the Transformative Revival and Urgent Maritime Program.
This new bill would look remarkably similar to — but not a carbon copy of — the SHIPS for America Act from which the president’s Maritime Action Plan and executive orders draw.
If Mr. Trump should take this step, three modifications are worth sending to Congress:
• Adjust the incentives for industry to reinvest in workforce and shipbuilding infrastructure — something the president has also issued in an executive order.
• Allow for regulatory relief with local community concurrence within proposed Maritime Prosperity Zones to accelerate industrial investment and attract new entrants to the sector.
• Propose a new Maritime Department to consolidate the U.S. Coast Guard, Maritime Administration, Federal Maritime Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to a unified body charged with reviving our nation’s commercial maritime sector.
More navel-gazing in Washington is unacceptable. With Congress’ summer recess fast approaching, national political attention will shift from bipartisan endeavors, such as a national maritime revival, to vote-seeking.
Our adversary in Beijing, though, is not biding its time in its aggressive pursuit of a New Cold War, which America is tardy in realizing. We must act.
• Brent D. Sadler is a senior research fellow specializing in naval warfare and advanced technology at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Defense.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.