IFPTE Tells Senate Armed Services Committee to Oppose Offshore Privatization of Navy Shipyard Maintenance and Repair

Earlier last month, IFPTE sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee leadership and members urging them to support the critical work that Navy civil service employees do at public shipyards and oppose efforts to grant the U.S. Navy the ability to use non-U.S. private shipyards for Navy ship repairs.  

IFPTE’s letter reminds the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Committee has already approved the text of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25 NDAA) that allows the Navy to repair forward-deployed naval forces in overseas private repair facilities in a three-year pilot program and “exercise the ability to perform maintenance and unplanned repair in distant and foreign locations.” The letter opposes an offered amendment that “is at odds with a comprehensive defense industrial policy that builds on the strengths of our American defense workforce, public shipyards, the U.S. defense industry, and our national interests. In effect, U.S. shipyards and American workers would compete with foreign shipyards for significant repair work. The resulting loss of specialized work within the U.S. shipyard industrial base would impact American workers, many of them veterans, who are dedicated to supporting our national security through their work at Navy shipyards, naval bases, and depots, and throughout the private shipyards in the U.S.” 

Read IFPTE’s letter opposing an amendment to the Senate NDAA that would expand the Navy’s authority to perform repairs of U.S. and Guam homeported vessels at foreign shipyards for up to 90 consecutive days.