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Shipbuilders Council of America
20 F Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20001
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SCA Weekly Report | September 14-18, 2020
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Registration Now Open:
2020 SCA Virtual Fall Membership Meeting
The 2020 SCA Virtual Fall Membership Meeting will be held online on October 7-8, 2020. The meeting will feature speakers from the Department of Defense, Congress, and other government officials. This meeting is free for SCA members to attend.
SCA will hold Board and Committee Meetings on Wednesday, October 7, 2020, and the Fall Meeting General Session on Thursday, October 8, 2020.
A draft schedule of events can be found HERE.
- To register for the 2020 Virtual Fall Meeting General Session, CLICK HERE
- To register for the open session of the Industry Partners Committee Meeting, CLICK HERE
Confirmed Speakers:
- Charlie Cook, Cook Political Report
- Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS)
- Rear Admiral Eric Ver Hage
- Rear Admiral Tom Anderson
- Rear Admiral John Polowczyk
- Ron O’Rourke, Congressional Research Service
- FireEye Representative
Invited Speakers:
- Admiral Michael Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations
- ASN James Guerts
- Vice Admiral Bill Galinis
- Sen. John Kennedy
- Rep. Peter DeFazio
- Rep. Joe Courtney
- Rep. Sam Graves
Sponsorship opportunities for the meeting are now available. To view available sponsorship's, CLICK HERE
Please contact SCA staff if you are interested in sponsoring the SCA Virtual Fall Membership Meeting.
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House And Senate Swapping Offers on Stopgap Spending Bill
House Democrats and Senate Republicans are still swapping offers on a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open at the end of the month. Senate Republicans want the measure to extend government funding through Dec. 18, while House Democrats are pushing for a Feb. 26 end date. Both sides are still pretty far apart on a timeline, but text of a deal could shake out in the next 24 hours or so. Much of it hinges on anomalies — funding and policy exceptions — to the bill.
Democrats are pushing for provisions supporting the Census beyond Dec. 31, $3.6 billion in election security grants among other issues. Senate Republicans are pushing for an anomaly requested by the White House that would ensure farmer bailout payments can keep flowing through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which otherwise would soon run into its $30 billion borrowing limit. While CR text has yet to materialize, the House Rules Committee plans to meet on Monday, teeing up the stopgap for a mid-week vote.
Nine Senate Democrats Urge 'Highest Possible Funding' of Virginia and Columbia Class Submarine Programs
Nine Senate Democrats urged the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations panels in a letter to "preserve the highest possible funding for both the Virginia and Columbia class submarine programs.” The senators endorsed half a dozen line items, including$4.6 billion to purchase two Virginia-class subs and $2.9 billion for procurement of the Columbia class in the coming fiscal year.
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Great Lakes Icebreaking Bill
U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Todd Young (R-IN) and Gary Peters (D-MI) are introducing the Great Lakes Winter Commerce Act. This bipartisan legislation will codify the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaking mission on the Great Lakes and increase the icebreaking capacity of the Great Lakes fleet. Icebreaking is critical for commerce in the Great Lakes, and increasing icebreaking capacity will help the many businesses and workers that rely on the maritime industry to transport their goods to market and grow our regional economy.
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Esper: Shipbuilding Plan Still in Flux; Unmanned Vessels Will Allow the Navy to Reach 355- Ship Fleet
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told sailors this week that heavy investment in unmanned systems would be key to the Navy reaching 355 or more ships and having the lethality and survivability needed if a conflict were to break out with China.
In his prepared remarks, Esper called for the Navy's shipbuilding accounts to grow to 13 percent of the service's budget, however his delivered remarks did not include that specific figure.
The Pentagon sought $207 billion for the Navy in its fiscal 2021 budget request. Even a 2 percent shift under that top line would represent $4.14 billion in extra funding for shipbuilding — real money, even by Pentagon standards.
The call to shift funding toward shipbuilding comes amid an accelerating naval arms race in the Pacific, with China investing in both a massive fleet and shore-based, long-range anti-ship missile capabilities to keep the U.S. Navy’s powerful carrier air wing out of striking distance. China is building toward a fleet of as many as 425 ships by 2030, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, while the U.S. Navy is building to a fleet of more than 355 ships, Esper said.
Read more HERE.
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NAVSEA Cheif Calls on Increased Focus on Fire Safety in Shipyards
Naval shipyards must retain the increased focus on fire safety that has followed the July fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), according to the head of Naval Sea Systems Command.
Vice Adm. William Galinis said Wednesday that every shipyard had reviewed its fire safety procedures in recent months. "It's something you can never let up on," Galinis said Wednesday at the American Society of Naval Engineers' Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium.
The July 12 fire caused serious damage to the Bonhomme Richard, which was undergoing maintenance at Naval Base San Diego. Galinis said he would not comment on the investigation into the fire, which is ongoing.
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Offshore Wind Energy Will Deliver Few U.S. Jobs; Lack of Oversight Means Most Jobs Will Be Overseas
New developments have raised serious questions regarding the economic and job benefits from offshore wind energy projects in U.S. waters. A new study, conducted by Georgetown Economic Services (GES), finds that "the claim that the huge investments in offshore wind would provide significant job and economic benefits in the U.S. has been grossly inflated." The study also reaches an important conclusion: many of the jobs and benefits would actually go to the foreign-owned companies currently dominating the wind energy landscape, instead of creating local opportunities. CONTINUE READING >
BP Buys 50% Interest in Equinor U.S. Offshore Wind Projects
Energy major, BP, is spending $1.1 billion to acquire a 50 percent ownership with Norway-based offshore wind developer Equinor. The deal commits BP and Equinor to share in developing the Empire Wind lease area outside the New York Harbor approaches, and the Beacon Wind lease located south of Massachusetts. Equinor acquired one of the earliest U.S. East Coast wind power leases in 2017 with the Empire Wind site, an 80,000-acre triangle wedged between two of the main ship traffic lanes for New York Harbor. The Beacon Wind lease is 128,000 acres about 20 miles south of Nantucket, MA.
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By Roy Hadley, Adams and Reese LLP
Long story short, the CMMC process is progressing despite Covid-19.
The CMMC-AB released program details last week for C3PAOs, RPOs, and the credentialed roles that support them, namely Professionals, Certified Assessors, and Registered Practitioners. Information on additional programs will follow in the coming weeks including the Provisional Program. The application process for C3PAOs can be found here at https://cmmcab.formstack.com/forms/c3pao_application.
CMMC-AB Chairman Ty Schieber and Communications Chair Mark Berman are transitioning off the board. Karlton Johnson, the current Vice Chairman, will assume the role as Chairman. Yong-Gon Chon, Sheryl Hanchar and Charlie Williams will join the board. Sheryl Hanchar is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions and Charlie E. Williams, Jr is the President of CWilliams LLC. Both are veterans and their terms began immediately.
Additionally, the CMMC-AB named the first 11 LPPs - Licensed Partner Publishers - who will create training materials for the certification process. Over the next few months, the LPPs will take the exam objectives that are being developed by the CMMC-AB and create educational curricula that map back to those objectives to help assessors and others meet them. The LPPs will have the option and flexibility to create content in multiple formats: video, print publication, e-books, instructor-led synchronous learning, and/or guided self-paced on-demand asynchronous learning. You can learn more about the accredited LPPs here: https://www.cmmcab.org/marketplace.
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This CMMC update on the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) process is provided by Roy Hadley of Adams and Reese LLP. If you have questions regarding CMMC or the certification process, Roy can be reached at roy.hadley@arlaw.com or via telephone at 407-427-3730
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Carnival is Selling 18 Cruise Ships amid Financial Struggles and CDC’s No-Sail Order
Carnival Corporation — the parent company of nine cruise brands, including Princess, Costa, and Carnival — recently announced in a third-quarter earnings filing that it plans to sell 18 cruise ships in 2020, which amounts to 17 percent of the company’s ships. Carnival Corp. has already sold eight older-model cruise ships. It has not disclosed the cruise lines the ships are from or to whom they are being sold. The company will also delay delivery of new ships scheduled for 2021 as a cost-saving measure. Carnival Corp. lines account for 45 percent of the world’s cruise industry.
Bollinger Shipyards Awarded Contract for Submarine Drydock
Earlier this week, Bollinger Shipyards LLC announced that it will build a state-of-the-art, floating drydock for General Dynamics Electric Boat to support the construction and maintenance of the U.S.’s new Columbia Class of ballistic missile submarines. Electric Boat is the prime contractor on the design and build of the Columbia Class submarine, which will replace the aging Ohio-Class of ballistic-missile submarines. This is Bollinger Shipyards second contract awarded with General Dynamics Electric Boat. In late 2019, Bollinger Shipyards was selected to construct an ocean transport barge for Electric Boat scheduled to be delivered in 2021.
NTSB Releases Trove of Evidence on Conception Dive Boat Fire
The National Transportation Safety Board has released a trove of documentary evidence and factual reporting on the deadly fire aboard the dive boat, Conception, on September 2, 2019. The docket's technical reports confirm that there was no assigned roving watch on the night of the fire, and they raise new questions about the level of safety training that the crew received before setting sail. The new material does not include any conclusions or recommendations, which will have to wait for the NTSB's final report; that document will be released after a hearing scheduled for October 20.
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If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Paula Zorensky on the SCA staff.
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