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SCA Weekly Report | April 17-21, 2023
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REGISTER TODAY:
2023 SCA Spring Membership Meeting
May 17-18, 2023
20 F St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
Registration for the 2023 SCA Spring Membership meeting in Washington, D.C. is now open. The meeting will be held at the Adams and Reese offices at 20 F St. NW, Washington, D.C 20001.
For more information on the schedule and to register, CLICK HERE
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In conjunction with the 2023 SCA Spring Meeting, SCA will be hosting a fundraiser for Senator Time Kaine (D-VA) at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. If you are interested in attending the fundraiser, please view the flier HERE.
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McCarthy Unveils Debt Limit Deal
This week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) unveiled the Republican proposal to trim federal spending in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. The Republican plan would cap overall discretionary spending for fiscal 2024 at fiscal-2022 levels, mandating steep cuts in upcoming appropriations bills. The caps continue through 2033 and increase by 1 percent each year.
The plan effectively puts the decision to cut defense in the hands of House appropriators. Defense hawks, including House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX), have said they won’t support slashing the Pentagon. And the GOP debt limit framework allows appropriators to increase military funding while cutting domestic spending, but Democrats will almost certainly oppose bills that gut many of their priorities.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a sweeping rebuke of House Republicans’ debt limit proposal, calling it a nonstarter that would impose deep cuts to critical programs across the board.
The introduction of that plan and Biden’s speech demanding a debt limit hike with no strings attached represented significant steps in a standoff with major financial and political implications. The debt limit clock is ticking, with experts predicting the U.S. could default as early as June.
The House GOP proposal would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, or through March of next year — whichever comes first — ensuring Biden has to relitigate the issue with House Republicans before voters pick the next president. It also cuts federal funding by $130 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, turning back discretionary spending totals by about two years.
Actually passing the bill is likely to prove complicated, however — rank-and-file Republicans aired internal frustration about the path forward during a closed-door conference meeting this week. But already, McCarthy is seeking to put the onus on Biden and top Democrats to make the next move in the debt limit standoff.
The president and speaker haven’t communicated on the looming debt crisis since February, prompting McCarthy’s bill proposal and subsequent planned vote next week. The GOP plan aims to repeal a swath of clean energy tax credits, in addition to yanking back tens of billions of dollars that Democrats included for IRS enforcement in their signature tax, climate and health care bill last year.
Hawaii Congressman Calls for Advance Waiver of the Jones Act for Red Hill Defueling Mission
U.S. Congressman Ed Case (D-HI) has called for an advance waiver from the Jones Act and military cargo preference requirements to expedite the Department of Defense’s (DoD) defueling of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Case emphasized the need for waivers to “assure full, dependable, and cost-effective availability” of the ten oceangoing fuel tankers required under the DoD’s proposed defueling plan.
As part of the proposed defueling process, over one hundred million gallons of bulk fuel stored in the Red Hill tanks must be removed and distributed to other storage facilities under a plan supervised by the Environmental Protection Agency and Hawaii Department of Health. The current plan calls for ten oil tankers to ship the fuel from a pier at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to various points, ranging in distance from ten miles away at Kalaeloa to various replacement storage sites thousands of miles overseas.
This latest Jones Act waiver request is not the first from Case. In 2021 he re-introduced a bill to reform the Jones Act to exempt Hawaii and all noncontiguous U.S. locations from the law’s requirements, blaming the Jones Act for “artificially inflating the cost of shipping goods to Hawaii.” In 2022, he called on President Biden to waive the Jones Act for oil and petroleum products from mainland U.S. ports to Hawaii to facilitate the replacement of oil imports from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
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Navy Releases FY24 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan
This week, the Navy released the PB2024 Long Range Shipbuilding Plan, better known as the 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan. As has been previously noted, the plan provides three alternative strategies, with two strategies reflecting a budget with “limited growth matched to planned, but not yet achieved, industrial capacity” and one reflecting “a larger force with additional resources beyond the FYDP.”
The two low range options achieve 311-312 manned ships in FY2035, and ultimately 323- 327 manned ships in FY2045. The higher range option achieves 326 manned ships in the mid-2030s, and ultimately 363 manned ships by FY2045. The above inventory levels are traditional manned battle force ships. In addition, it is estimated that the Navy could achieve 89-149 unmanned platforms by FY2045.
Additionally the Navy will decommission two nuclear aircraft carriers back-to-back and two Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships will go up for foreign military sale. Following a planned 13-month service life extension, the 48-year-old USS Nimitz (CVN-68) will leave service in 2026, one year later than last year’s plan. Commissioned in 1975, Nimitz was built for a 50-year service and the extension will squeeze at least one more deployment from the first-in-class carrier.
USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Montgomery (LCS-8), commissioned in 2015 and 2016, respectively, are now marked for foreign military sales as part of the decommissioning plan. The Navy said that focusing the Independence-class ships on mine countermeasure missions means the service only needs 15.
While the Navy is committed to the disposal plans included in the long-range shipbuilding plan, the remainder of the report, by the service’s admission, gives an incomplete picture of the service’s future shipbuilding plans.
“The Navy is conducting a Battle Force Ship Assessment and Requirement Report (BFSAR) utilizing the recently approved Department of Defense Planning Scenario for the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS). This analysis will not be completed until June 2023, and does not inform this report,” reads a letter from Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro accompanying the outlook to Congress. “The 2022 NDS driven BFSAR analysis will inform the FY2025 shipbuilding plan.”
You can view the SCA Summary of the proposal HERE.
RELATED: UPDATED CRS REPORT: Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress
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New York State to Open First Certified Offshore Wind Training School on Staten Island
The nascent offshore wind industry has begun to make a footprint in New York, and with seemingly unbounded potential to grow into a major source of jobs and energy, the burgeoning field is again setting its sights on Staten Island. The state’s first Global Wind Organization (GWO)-certified training facility will receive a ribbon-cutting in Mariners Harbor and serve as a source of local manpower to fuel the rapidly expanding energy sector. The facility, a floating barge, has the capacity to currently accommodate up to a dozen students weekly and is able to travel to different communities to break down travel barriers for prospective participants, according to TMI Waterfront, a joint venture between Indigo River and Menotti Enterprise — firms with expertise in renewable energy and waterfront and workforce development.
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Ransomware Attack Hits Marinette Marine Shipyard, Results in Short-Term Delay of Frigate, Freedom LCS Construction
The Wisconsin shipyard that builds the U.S. Navy’s Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship and the Constellation-class guided-missile frigate suffered a ransomware attack last week that delayed production across the shipyard. Fincantieri Marinette Marine experienced the attack in the early morning hours of April 12, when large chunks of data on the shipyard’s network servers were rendered unusable by an unknown professional group, two sources familiar with a Navy summary of the attack told USNI News on Thursday.
Based on information from the Navy, it’s unclear if the attackers stole any data. You can read more HERE.
C-Innovation Opens New Facility in Port Fourchon
C-Innovation, an aļ¬liate of Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) and its family of companies, recently announced the opening of its new facility in Port Fourchon, LA. The expansion provides an additional dock facility for subsea inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) and riserless light well intervention (RLWI) services. The new facility offers vessel loading, project system integration testing (SIT), mobilization and demobilization services for the subsea market.
Callan Marine Adds New Cutter Suction Dredge
Galveston, Texas based Callan Marine has added a new cutter suction dredge to its fleet. The new dredge General Marshall was constructed by DSC Dredge beginning in Poplarville, MO, and completed construction in Reserve, LA, before being launched at the Kennedy Shipyard in Galveston. At 194 feet long and 41 feet wide, with an 18-inch suction and discharge diameter, General Marshall is equipped with a total of 3,005 horsepower and features advanced production automation and monitoring systems.
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If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the SCA staff.
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