As the national trade association for the U.S. shipyard industry, the mission of the Shipbuilders Council of America is to support and promote the American shipyard industry – including shipbuilders, ship repairers, and the associated supplier base – by providing strategic information and expertise for our membership and advocating on their behalf before Congress, the Executive Branch and media.
The Jones Act
Central to the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry is the U.S. Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, which ensures a robust and competitive domestic shipyard industrial base. Shipbuilders Council of America strongly supports the Jones Act, as well as policies and programs that promote domestic manufacturing; the inland tug and barge industry; offshore oil and gas development; offshore renewable energy development; the non-contiguous trades; and America’s commercial fishing fleets.
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Ending Sequestration
Sequestration puts our vital national security missions at risk, destroys jobs and does little to resolve our debt crisis. The only way to stop sequestration is through legislation in Congress. Congress must find a way to avert or replace annual sequester reductions with more rational and executable cuts.
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National Security
U.S. shipyards have a long and proud tradition of building the military vessels that are the foundation of our maritime presence in the world. SCA knows the importance of government new ship construction to our national security and has diligently advocated for policies and budgets to protect and expand this sector of our economy.
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Economic Security
The U.S. shipyard industrial base is vital to America’s economic security. The private U.S. shipbuilding and repair industry employs highly skilled men and women building the largest and most sophisticated fleets in the world.
According to the U.S. Maritime Administration, the U.S. shipyard industry supports more than 100,000 direct shipyard jobs across the United States, produces $7.9 billion in direct labor income and contributes $9.8 billion in direct GDP to the national economy.
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Homeland Security
The United States has more than 95,000 miles of national shoreline including borders in the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts as well as the Great Lakes separating the United States from Canada. Along this shoreline are many of America’s greatest cities and in virtually all of these locations there are ports through which millions of cargo containers and hundreds of thousands of passengers annually pass.
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