[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 89 (Tuesday, July 12, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 MARITECH: -- STRENGTHENING AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING IN THE WORLD MARKET--
              THE NEED FOR PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COOPERATION

                                 ______


                           HON. STEPHEN HORN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 12, 1994

  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Maritech Program of 
the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency. The 
Maritech Program is operated by the Department of Defense in 
conjunction with the Department of Transportation's Maritime 
Administration and in full partnership with the Department of the 
Navy's Office of Naval Research. This program is a Federal effort to 
revitalize the Nation's private shipbuilding industry and to enhance 
its competitiveness on world markets.
  In the face of defense cutbacks, I believe we need to strengthen our 
maritime industrial base so that it is able to survive on its own 
without the promise of future defense procurements. I am pleased that 
ARCO Marine Inc., of Long Beach, CA, a private shipbuilding 
corporation, has been awarded a grant of over $4 million to be used in 
conjunction with several other enterprises, both foreign and domestic, 
for the purposes of pioneering the comeback of our Nation's private 
shipbuilding industry. This grant will be used to develop focused 
technology for a family of double hull tankers, new shuttle tanker 
designs, and new shipyard designs.
  Since the end of the Second World War, workers employed in our 
Nation's maritime industry have contributed significantly to the 
production of ships which aid in the commerce and trade of our country. 
Shipbuilders can be proud not only that they provide the vessels by 
which American goods were transported on the high seas but that also 
provided the vessels through which the United States helped to secure 
the peace during the cold war. Within the last 10 years however, 
private sector shipbuilding in the American economy has declined 
sharply, and we have lost ground to our international maritime 
competitors. At the same time, defense contracts have been cut back in 
response to post cold war needs. The net result has been a 40-percent 
reduction of nationwide maritime industry employees since reaching an 
all-time high in 1981 of 186,700. Orders for new merchant vessels under 
construction or on order at U.S. private shipyards have all but 
disappeared. This situation in our private maritime industry cries out 
for action.
  The task of rebuilding our maritime industrial base will not be easy. 
Indeed, such a task necessitates an expanded view of what must be done 
to ensure continuous product and process enhancement. According to the 
Department of Defense, the objective of the Maritech Program is to 
improve, through advances in technology, the commercial competitiveness 
of the U.S. shipbuilding industry and, by doing so, to maintain our 
shipbuilding industrial base as U.S. Navy orders decline. Because the 
United States is a maritime nation, our economic success in the world 
economy, in part, depends on the shipping that brings American products 
to market. Maritech strives to improve our design and technological 
performance in the area of private shipbuilding, helping to ensure that 
our economic position in the world remains secure.

  While the U.S. shipbuilding industry has long been an innovator in 
ship construction, American shipyards have fallen behind their foreign 
competitors in commercial shipbuilding contracts because private 
shipyards have had to fill their shipbuilding capacity with orders from 
the U.S. Navy. Therefore, in order to regain our leadership position in 
commercial shipbuilding, we may need to turn to our foreign competitors 
in order to obtain the expertise and technology needed to jumpstart our 
industry. The Maritech Program, however, is structured in such a way 
that funding in the form of grants is awarded to a consortia of U.S. 
shipbuilding enterprises who, in turn, will decide to what extent the 
contribution of foreign shipbuilding expertise is pertinent.
  The United States still has a large, sophisticated, and very capable 
shipbuilding industry, but the boom days of U.S. Navy shipbuilding are 
behind us and we need to take the extra step to ensure that the private 
shipbuilding sector is capable of surviving on its own. Combining 
shipbuilding expertise from various sources, whether they be public, 
private, foreign, or domestic, will amplify American shipyards' ability 
to launch new technologies in shipbuilding and capture a share of the 
commercial market. Taking such steps now will strengthen our long-term 
economic growth and competitiveness in the shipbuilding industry.
  The Maritech Program has my strong support. The principles of 
Maritech are in keeping with the President's Defense Reinvestment and 
Conversion Initiative. I will support efforts to build a strong, sound 
economy for the people of California and the Nation as a whole. If that 
goal is to be achieved, there must be greater flexibility by all 
parties--public and private--to work to maintain the highly skilled 
human resources which exist in both the private and the public 
shipyards. If we lose either of these key assets, our Nation will be 
the poorer. Cooperation must be the order of the day. Federal laws 
should be changed to provide for creative cooperation.

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