Maritime Revival Is All About The People
May 22 was National Maritime Day, a good day to reflect on the unprecedented level of attention that U.S. maritime policy has been getting lately.
The SHIPS Act—officially named the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act of 2025—was reintroduced in both the Senate and House in late April. It’s a bipartisan bill aimed at revitalizing the U.S. Merchant Marine and shipbuilding industry. The bill awaits committee action and debate.
It’s a time of intense activity for all interests concerned with America’s maritime industry. Many of the SHIPS Act’s provisions (but not all) have also been incorporated into a recent executive order from President Donald Trump. The upcoming Inland Marine Expo will have a panel devoted to these moves.
Much attention in the SHIPS Act and the executive order is focused on the blue-water side and rebuilding the shipyards necessary to support American ocean shipping, but a lot of the measures under discussion will inevitably affect the brown-water side as well.
Then came Secretary Kristi Noem’s FD2028, a policy for reshaping the Coast Guard and moving it forward. Among her goals is to have the Coast Guard recruit 15,000 new members by 2028.
The Coast Guard’s recruiting goal for 2025 is currently set at 4,300 active-duty enlisted personnel. That’s an increase from the previous year, as the Coast Guard exceeded its 2024 goals. The Coast Guard has said it wants to open new recruiting stations and actively engage young people in areas with a high interest in joining the military.
Of course, we welcome efforts to grow the Coast Guard and boost domestic shipbuilding, but it does raise the question: Where will these young people come from? It’s not just the maritime sector that has seen increased attention. The long-time neglect of the trades and the pressing need for new generations of electricians, welders, plumbers and similar trades has come to the fore in recent years, with the conversation driven by figures like Mike Rowe, the host of TV’s “Dirty Jobs,” who has made a revival of the trades a personal crusade.
Correcting this labor imbalance is good for America in the long term, but every opportunity also brings challenges. For our sector, it means competing with a lot of other high-paying professions for capable young men and women. How can we attract those young people to a career on towboats or in shipyards rather than to another trade or industry?
While it’s definitely a great time to be a young person with an interest in the trades, it’s also a challenging time for those sectors looking to employ them.
