IFPTE Urges House and Senate Armed Services Committee to Support Navy Shipyards, Not Outsourcing to Foreign Private Shipyards
Over the last several weeks, IFPTE has been engaging with House and Senate Armed Services Committees to stop Congress from granting the U.S. Navy the ability to use non-U.S. private shipyards for Navy ship repairs.
Early this week, just before the Senate Armed Services Committee began marking up the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25 NDAA), IFPTE warned Senate Armed Services Committee leadership that any such “provision would open the door to outsourcing of government work which is detrimental to the future of the remaining four public shipyards and national security. The resulting loss of specialized work would diminish the experience and expertise of the shipyard workforce and raise the possibility of underutilizing the public shipyards when workloads and schedules are less busy in the future.”
Unfortunately, the House FY25 NDAA includes language that allows “preventive maintenance on deployed naval vessels that is limited to 21 days or less” in foreign private shipyards. We continue to work on making sure any final NDAA bill does not include language that “is overly broad, poorly defined, and risks creating unintended and significant consequences for the U.S. shipyard industrial base.”
Working with other unions and the AFL-CIO, IFPTE has identified several Members of Congress who share our concerns. As the NDAA continues moving forward, we will stay on top of this issue and ensure Congress does not outsource U.S. shipyard work overseas.