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SCA Weekly Report | September 20 - 24, 2021
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Registration Still Open: 2021 SCA Fall Membership Meeting
October 13-14, 2021
Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa
Coronado, California
The 2021 SCA Fall Membership Meeting will be held in-person on October 13-14, 2021.The cost to attend is $550.
SCA Board and Committee Meetings will be held on Wednesday, October 13 and SCA Staff Reports, the Guest Speaker Session, and shipyard tours will be held on Thursday, October 14.
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SCA has secured a room block at the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa for the Fall Meeting. The rate for the room block is $279/ night. To book a hotel room under the SCA rate, please click HERE.
The room block for the 2021 SCA Fall Meeting closes next Wednesday, September 29, 2021. To book a room at the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa under the negotiated SCA rate, please book your room before next Wednesday. After this date, SCA can't guarantee the same nightly rate.
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2021 SCA Fall Meeting Exhibition Hall
Registration for the 2021 SCA Fall Meeting Exhibition Hall is now open. The exhibition hall encourages greater interaction between SCA members, offering the opportunity for companies to demonstrate their product or services directly to potential customers.
Exhibitors will be able to choose their booth assignment on a first come, first serve basis upon completion of the registration and payment. The cost to exhibit is $1,900.
The following will be provided for each exhibitor:
Tabletop Exhibit
- (1) 6ft L x 2 ft. W x 30” H draped table
- (2) chairs
- (1) waste paper basket with liner
The exhibitor packet with registration form can be accessed HERE.
Please fill out the registration form and send it back to davis.gaddy@arlaw.com and paula.zorensky@arlaw.com to confirm your booth assignment and be invoiced for the exhibition fee.
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Congress Deals with 4 Key-To-Do Items
Democratic leaders' efforts to infuse momentum into turbulent negotiations over President Joe Biden's social spending plans are falling flat so far with key players on Capitol Hill.
And as Congress hurtles toward a crucial week that could make or break Biden’s agenda, centrists and progressives remained largely unmoved from their entrenched positions. That leaves Speaker Nancy Pelosi days away from a vote on a $550 billion Senate-passed infrastructure bill without a clear path to passage. Congress is grappling with four key pieces of legislation. Below is a state of play on each:
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House Prepares for Reconciliation Vote
Members of the House Budget Committee met Thursday night with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to prepare for a Saturday markup on Democrats’ multi trillion-dollar social spending bill — the price tag and parameters of which are still very much in flux as the lower chamber hurtles toward critical deadlines next week.
During the markup Republicans wouldn't be able to offer amendments but they will be able to offer non-binding motions to instruct, which they could weaponize to drag out the proceedings with procedural gymnastics.
Senate Stopgap Vote Scheduled
The Senate votes to limit debate on the motion to proceed to the spending measure at 5:30 p.m. Monday. With debt ceiling provisions included, nearly all Senate Republicans are expected to vote against the procedural move, blocking the Senate from proceeding to a final vote on the stopgap spending. That would leave Congress just three days to avoid a shutdown on October 1.
House Passes FY22 NDAA; Senate Releases FY22 NDAA Text
By a vote of 316-113 the House voted to pass H.R. 4350, the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Overall the bill would provide $740 billion, more than the $715 billion requested by the White House in PB22 . The House Armed Services Committee adopted an amendment that added $4.7 billion to shipbuilding, including money to procure an extra Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, an amphibious assault ship, a fleet oiler and two expeditionary fast transport ships. The amendment also would authorize money to expand the Navy’s attack submarine procurement to three boats per year. The measure also includes operations and maintenance funding to keep three cruisers in service that the Navy sought to retire.
Lawmakers notably rejected by a 286-142 vote efforts by progressive Democrats — led by Reps. Barbara Lee of California, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — to undo the $25 billion budget increase and instead endorse Biden's budget level.
The SCA Summary of the HASC FY22 NDAA can be found HERE
The Senate has not yet passed its own version of the defense bill. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved a version in July that also endorses increased defense spending. This week, SASC released the bill text, report and executive summary of their version of the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act.
Overall, the Senate version of the bill would authorize nearly $778 billion in total national defense spending, with $740 billion for the Defense Department, $27.7 billion for the Energy Department and nearly $10 billion for defense-related activities at other agencies technically outside the committee’s jurisdiction. Like the House version, the bill authorizes $25 billion more than requested by the White House.
The bill would authorize $25.1 billion to build 9 ships including:
- 2 Virginia-class submarines
- 2 DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers
- 1 FFG(X) Constellation Class Frigate
- 1 TAO Fleet Oiler
- 1 T-AGOS Surtass Ship
- 2 T-ATS(X) Fleet Ocean Tugs
Additionally, the bill would prohibit early retirement of naval vessels unless the Secretary of the Navy makes certain certifications to Congress.
The SCA Summary of the SASC FY22 NDAA can be found HERE.
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Pentagon, Navy Conducting Parallel Fleet Studies Ahead of Next National Defense Strategy
The Navy and the Pentagon are crunching numbers on two separate sets of studies that will map out the size of the service’s future fleet as defense budgets are set to stay static for the foreseeable future. The Navy is performing its own assessment of the fleet architecture needed to counter future threats past the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, while the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) is also evaluating the fleet design for the FY 2023 budget that will come out early next year.
The efforts come as defense officials continue to predict flat or declining budgets in the coming years that will make it difficult for the Navy to build toward its goal of a larger fleet to maintain an edge over China in the Indo-Pacific. The approach to the studies aligns with Navy and Marine Corps officials’ argument that the force structure assessment – which evaluates the quantity and types of Navy ships for the fleet – should be an iterative process that builds on prior analytical work while taking into account new threats and problem sets.
Navy Plans to Cut 1,000 Civilian Jobs; Close U.S. Base Libraries in $280M Cost Savings Drive
The Navy will cut about 1,000 civilian jobs in the U.S. and reduce base services across the country as part of a budget move to reduce costs on domestic bases, according to a message from the head of Navy Installations Command (CNIC).
“Based on current projections, CNIC will be forced to curtail the level of base operations services (BOS) we provide to the Fleet, Fighter, and Family in [Fiscal Year 2022] and beyond,” wrote Vice Adm. Yancey Lindsey in the Sept. 15 message.
According to the message from Lindsey, the Navy is working on a requirement to reduce the base operations service’s top line. The priority was to keep programs like childcare and port and airfield operations unaffected,
Five hundred of the cut positions will come from Navy Region Mid-Atlantic. Three hundred of the lost jobs will come from Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic and 200 from Navy Region Mid-Atlantic (CRMA) as part of their own $66 million budget reduction. he said. Instead, cuts will include other measures including restricting ship operations to Monday through Friday to avoid overtime.
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First Jones Act Compliant Hydrogen-Ready Wind Turbine Installation Vessel Design Awarded AIP
ABS has awarded Approval in Principle (AIP) to Ned Project Inc. for its hydrogen-ready wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) design. The design is intended to be Jones Act Compliant and able to meet future offshore wind market demands, specifically operations involving 15-20 MW wind turbine installations. Its innovative approach loads monopiles vertically on the deck, eliminating the need to rotate monopiles to the vertical position at sea, increasing efficiency and safety. The design is hydrogen-ready with the engine rooms able to be converted into fuel cell compartments accommodating polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, making it possible to rely solely on liquefied hydrogen (LH2) to meet its energy demands.
Vineyard Wind Makes Offshore Wind Bids in Massachusetts
The developer of the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States is moving forward with plans for two additional projects the coast of Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind currently has 1,604 MW of offshore wind energy capacity under development for Massachusetts and Connecticut with its Vineyard Wind 1 and Park City Wind projects. The two “Commonwealth Wind” proposals would offer options of approximately 800 megawatts (MW) and 1,200 MW.
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Senator Murkowski Introduces Bill to Exempt Large Alaska Cruises from the Passenger Vessel Services Act
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has officially introduced new legislation to provide a permanent exemption from the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) for foreign-flagged cruises to Alaska. The Cruising for Alaska’s Workforce Act applies to ships transporting more than 1,000 passengers to and from Alaska and the lower 48. The legislation provides bumping rights for a U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, vessel of a similar size to service the Alaska cruise market.
The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 requires that foreign passenger vessels stop in a foreign destination while traveling between two U.S. points. For Alaska-bound cruises operated by the world’s largest cruise companies like Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, who do not register their vessels in the United States, this has meant a stopover in Canada for its West Coast-based ships.
LNG Bunkering to Expand on U.S. West Coast for new Box Ships
U.S. alternative fuels supplier, Clean Energy Fuels, will provide LNG for Pasha Hawaii ships in the first maritime LNG bunkering on the West Coast. George III and its sister vessel Janet Marie are both under construction for Jones Act service at Keppel AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas. The two Ohana-class container ships will join Pasha Hawaii’s US-flag fleet, trading between the US west coast and Hawaii. George III will start operation in Q4 2021 and Janet Marie shortly thereafter.
Carnival Corp on Track for Restarting Half Its Fleet by End of October
The world’s largest cruise company is on track to have half of its fleet capacity return to service by the end of October, with plans to return 65% of its fleet by the end of the year. Carnival Corporation announced Thursday that, to date, eight of the company’s nine cruise line brands – Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard – have resumed guest sailings. By the end of October, those eight brands have announced they will be operating 42 ships, marking the return of over 50% of the company’s fleet capacity as part of global restart efforts.
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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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