President’s Budget Request Contains Shipbuilding Details
The Trump administration’s proposed Commercial Shipbuilding Infrastructure Development Program is a new $250 million initiative in President Donald Trump’s FY 2027 budget request, aimed at modernizing U.S. shipyard infrastructure and strengthening maritime industrial capacity. Led by the Maritime Administration, this initiative is designed to complement existing grants for smaller yards by supporting larger shipyard infrastructure projects to reverse the decline in U.S. commercial shipbuilding.
The initiative is proposed as a $250 million program under the Maritime Administration (MarAd), intended for larger shipyards, potentially serving as a counterpart to the $105 million Small Shipyard Grant Program.
The initiative is designed to increase domestic shipbuilding capacity, improve infrastructure, and enhance competition, as part of the broader America’s Maritime Action Plan aimed at reducing the nation’s reliance on foreign-built commercial vessels.
The program is part of a broader push to revitalize the industrial base, which includes establishing Maritime Prosperity Zones to attract private capital and supporting the Strategic Commercial Fleet. As of April 2026, the proposal is before Congress, with final funding levels and eligibility requirements subject to legislative approval.
The 2026 Maritime Action Plan was developed by the administration to reverse the trend of fewer than 1 percent of global commercial ships being built in the United States. It was released in February and includes some action items that can immediately be undertaken by agencies. But it, too, like the budget request, includes spending proposals that must be approved by Congress.
Executive Order (E.O.) 14269, “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” called for a comprehensive Maritime Action Plan to reestablish U.S.-flagged and U.S.-built commercial shipping competitiveness, to rebuild America’s maritime industrial base and to recruit and train the domestic maritime workforce. In support of this plan, the budget proposes $500 million for Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) grants, $550 million for the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s Campus Modernization Plan, $355 million for Small Shipyard and Commercial Shipbuilding Infrastructure Grants (the two programs put together), and more than $100 million for new workforce development and innovation programs.
In addition, the budget proposes to establish a new Maritime Security Trust Fund that would provide consistent, predictable and durable funding for maritime support programs alongside annual discretionary appropriation. That trust fund was originally supposed to be funded by tariff revenues, but that is now up in the air after recent court rulings on tariffs.
