Golden Secures Provision to Study Shipbuilding Workforce Preparation in Defense Funding Bill

WASHINGTON — As this year's defense funding bill nears a vote on the House floor, Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02), a member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), secured an important shipbuilding provision for inclusion in the final bill. Golden's measure directs the Navy to develop and implement a plan to grow and train the workforce necessary to achieve a 355-ship fleet.

"Our shipyards and shipbuilding unions have told me that recruiting and training the workforce of the future is a challenge," said Congressman Golden. "I want to find out what we'll need to do to train the next generation of Maine workers to build these ships, take good shipbuilding jobs, and set our shipyards up for success. My provision instructs the Department of Defense to develop a plan to prepare our shipbuilding workforce for the next thirty years. It's an important step towards ensuring Maine's shipbuilding heritage continues for generations to come."

Earlier this year, Golden asked Navy officials about their plans to grow the shipbuilding workforce and train new workers. The HASC Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, of which Golden is a member, released their markup proposal this week for the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The final markup included a provision, authored by Golden, that would require the Navy to develop a plan on how best to prepare the shipbuilding workforce to achieve their 30-year shipbuilding goal. The plan would examine:

• The time and investment required for shipbuilders to maintain shipbuilding proficiency;
• Demographics in the industry;
• How to address the gap between levels of experience in the industry;
• Recommendations on the best training practices for future shipbuilders, and;
• Recommendations on how to encourage young people to enter the industry.

Shipbuilders go through an average of five to seven years of rigorous apprenticeship training to become proficient in their craft. One aim of the provision is to prevent a ‘bathtub effect' — in which experienced shipbuilders age out of the workforce and cannot train younger workers new to the trade — in the shipbuilding industry.