A group of 19 lawmakers from both congressional parties have asked President Joe Biden to create a new “interagency maritime policy coordinator” position to organize American maritime and seapower policy.
In a Jan. 29 letter, lawmakers argued the U.S. “has failed to give proper attention to the elements of our national sea power” just as China is expanding its strategic sea-based influence. They want this new coordinator to also help influence industrial base resource decisions across the military and commercial sectors.
USNI News first reported the letter on January 30.
The lawmakers argued that while China builds a global maritime network, the U.S. “has failed to give proper attention to the elements of our national sea power.”
It said meanwhile, U.S. maritime infrastructure, including its shipyards, is aging and the U.S. flagged international trading fleet has massively declined over the decades.
“Simultaneously, our global competitors are strengthening their maritime industries and asymmetric forces are threatening freedom of navigation and the international law of the sea,” the letter said, citing China’s intimidating actions in the South China Sea and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
The signatories said they want to expand beyond the secretary of the Navy’s maritime statecraft strategy for a national focus with presidential attention and resources and congressional support, starting with the maritime policy coordinator position.
In a September speech, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro called for a new maritime starcraft covering a whole of government approach to build U.S. and allied commercial and naval maritime power (Defense Daily, Sept. 29, 2023).
He followed that up by convening a new group of government shipbuilders across government departments to increase collaboration across shipbuilding and repair industries (Defense Daily, Nov. 20, 2023).
In December, Del Toro created a new Department of the Navy Office of Strategic Assessment to give him data-driven assessments and recommendations to inform a more modernized and lethal naval force (Defense Daily, Dec. 13).
Most recently, he hired Hunter Stires to serve as a “maritime strategist” focusing on maritime statecraft, competition and high level priorities like re-arming Vertical Launch Systems at sea (Defense Daily, Jan. 18)
The lawmaker letter’s signatories included Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Roc Scott (R-Fla.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), and Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.).
Notably, the signatories do not include top members of the House or Senate Armed Services Committees or their respective Seapower Subcommittees.
However, Waltz is chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, Garamendi is the ranking member of the same, Bergman is the chairman of the Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee, and Lamborn is chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.
Kelly is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee and Scott is ranking member of the Personnel Subcommittee.
The letter calls on Biden to make two other high level decisions, starting with issuing a Presidential Determination “that establishes commercial, civil, and military shipbuilding and shipping industries, with their associated domestic infrastructure and workforces, as elements on the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors list.”
As part of this determination, they want this to authorize the Department of Defense to use its Defense Production Act Title III authorities to invest in the commercial shipbuilding and shipping industries as well as civilian infrastructure and workforces. This would be in coordination with the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration.
Finally, the lawmakers also want Biden to develop a national strategy “de-risking” the U.S. maritime domain from China and other maritime threats, “recognizing that our security and economic way of life relies on open and free sea lines of communication.”
While the letter said the U.S. “will always be a maritime nation,” it acknowledged that changing the trajectory of shipbuilding and shipping industries will take decades.
“We stand at an inflection point. We must act now–before it is too late–to reinvigorate American and allied maritime power on the seas.”