Golden statement on Trump’s new push to offshore Navy shipbuilding
August 14, 2026
WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) released the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s latest effort to build American warships in foreign shipyards:
“I don’t know how we’re supposed to take any soaring ‘America-first’ language from this administration seriously when it appears to be bound and determined to send American shipbuilding jobs overseas and, now, to sell American shipyards to foreign corporations. Luckily, the House has already given bipartisan support to my language to block this short-sighted offshoring scheme, and the Senate is poised to do the same. Congress must take seriously its job to protect national security and American jobs.”
BACKGROUND:
Golden successfully amended this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to explicitly prohibit the appropriation of federal funds to build American ships overseas. The House passed the NDAA, with Golden’s language to protect American shipbuilding, in July.
Golden’s amendment was in response to a Navy Shipbuilding Plan released by the Pentagon earlier this year, which called for offshoring the production of some warships, or parts of warships, in overseas yards.
Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is home to scores of shipbuilders employed at Bath Iron Works who build DDG-51 Destroyers, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called the “workhorse” of the US naval fleet.
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