Yesterday we kicked off America at Sea: Voices That Matter. Today you’ll meet the two people who will be with us to the finish line: our moderator, Captain Brent Sadler, U.S. Navy, retired, and Clay Wirsing, founder of U.S. Maritime Action, which is hosting this series with us.
Brent explains the SHIPS for America Act, where it stands and how he came to this work. Clay talks about starting out in a shipyard, and why that got him into this fight. Watch below.
Join the conversation. Reply to the post above on X and tell us what’s working, what’s in the way, and what you’d fix first. Not on X? Reach us through StrongerNavy.org.
What we heard
The SHIPS for America Act is big, and that’s the point. Brent calls it the first serious effort since the Nixon years to revive America’s maritime industrial base: naval shipbuilding, ship repair, commercial shipping and the training behind all of it, from skilled shipyard workers to naval architects [2]. That reach is also what makes it hard to move. So many committees own a piece of it.
Where it stands. Parts of the bill passed the House this summer as amendments to the defense bill [1]. The Senate hasn’t acted yet, and the two chambers are expected to work it out in conference. Brent says support is wide and bipartisan, and the White House backs reviving the maritime industrial base.
“It’s not just something for a few technocrats here in Washington, D.C., because that’s not going to work. It’s never worked in the past.” — Capt. Brent Sadler, USN (Ret.)
Why more voices matter. Brent’s point is simple. A strong Navy needs a strong maritime industrial base, and getting there takes technical experts, business leaders, workers and the public, not just a few people in Washington.
From the shipyard floor. Clay started as a welding engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2017. About a year in, Navy officials came to talk about speeding up the yard’s pace to compete with China. It was his first look at how far we’ve fallen behind as a maritime nation.
“Unfortunately, not a lot has changed since then in terms of actual shipbuilding capacity, but we do now see a ton of momentum.” — Clay Wirsing
A long time coming. Clay notes that China revisits its maritime policy every five to ten years. The United States hasn’t made a major update since the Merchant Marine Act of 1970.
How the series works
Over the next 45 days, we’ll post each new voice here. Everyone gets about ten minutes and the same three questions:
1. What’s working right now that we should do more of?
2. What’s the biggest barrier to rebuilding America at sea?
3. If you could fix one thing first, what would it be?
At the end of November, we’ll publish a common-ground report: what these voices agree on, in their own words.
Transcript
Bill Cullifer: Welcome to America at Sea: Voices That Matter. I’m Bill Cullifer with Americans for a Stronger Navy. Today I’m joined by two people who will be with us to the finish line. Our moderator, Captain Brent Sadler, U.S. Navy, retired, and Clay Wirsing, founder of U.S. Maritime Action, a not-for-profit organization based in San Diego. Thank you both for being here today. Brent, let’s start with the SHIPS for America Act. You’ll hear a lot about this. Do most Americans know what it is?
Brent Sadler: No, absolutely not. And I’ll try to be as concise… I mean, it’s a massive piece of legislation. Historic. It’s the first time since Nixon was in office that there’s been an effort to try to revive and update America’s maritime industrial base. So this is naval shipbuilding, it’s the repair, it’s our shipping industry, it’s the academics of that. So it’s the training of highly skilled blue-collar workers on robotic systems like welding, but also the naval architects, which we don’t educate enough, that do the design work and solve problems in the shipyard so that we can keep things moving.
So it’s a very comprehensive bill. It also makes it very hard to get through Congress, because it has so many committees that are responsible for parts of it. And so the origin of this, about a dozen or so folks pulled together here in D.C. from industry, academia, government, military, to put together what would be the most workable, but most importantly effective, approach to reviving America’s maritime industrial base. And as we know from the COVID recovery, the war in Ukraine, the war right now with Iran, shipping is extremely vulnerable, and it has a huge impact on our daily lives and economy, but most importantly also our security. And so this is all very deadly serious.
The bill itself right now has been passed by the House. The Speaker of the House pulled a few elements out of it for the revenue creation part, per House rules, so that they could put it as an amendment to the defense budget. So it’s sitting over with the Senate. They’re going to go into what’s called conference, and hopefully before Christmas have it on a floor vote.
As far as popularity of this bill, it started back in 2023, formally, and the first time it was brought to the floor, sadly, didn’t get a vote, was in December of 2024. And then it was brought forward again in April of 2025. Now it’s being revised and it’s coming again. The popularity of it, you know, set all that aside. It has wide bipartisan support. It definitely has the White House’s support. President Trump has been very strongly advocating for reviving America’s maritime industrial base, to be very clear. So if this was a vote today, set all the processes and Congress’s procedures aside, high confidence that it would pass. But it means that you’ve got to stay aware and get more and more awareness to keep that momentum going, because the historical consequences of not getting it right, or not doing this window of opportunity, will put us really in a bad situation.
Bill Cullifer: Thank you, Brent. That’s a lot of history in a short time. Why does it matter to bring all of these individuals and these voices together? And tell us a little bit about how you came into this work, please.
Brent Sadler: Well, thanks again for pulling together this effort. And the more voices and the more people that are engaged, technical experts, business leaders, political leaders, everyone coming together and continually updating themselves as to why we need to have a strong maritime industrial base and a strong Navy that’s enabled by that. It’s important and it requires a lot of participation. It’s not just something for a few technocrats here in Washington, D.C., because that’s not going to work. It’s never worked in the past. So thank you for your efforts on this very important and historic moment.
My own personal background: 26-year Navy veteran, retired at the height of COVID in 2020. And I’ve been at the Heritage Foundation here in Washington, D.C., and critically, when I left the military, I was able to get my own voice and to follow where the facts lead, and I had quite a lot of friends in industry, all the political tribes here in D.C., and it became very clear we had to do something, and formed a group called Revolution in Shipping, which is the seed corn, and basically still active in the background on putting together and crafting things like the SHIPS for America Act, the president’s executive orders on this, helping also inform some of our treaty allies like Japan and South Korea, the French, the Australians, all who have, in recent, like the last couple of years, started to get much more engaged in bringing billions of dollars into our maritime industrial base. So I’ve been involved in that for quite a while, at least since 2022, on this particular effort, reviving our American maritime strength.
Bill Cullifer: Thank you, Brent. Clay, you came from the shipyard floor. Tell us about your background and why does this matter to you.
Clay Wirsing: My name is Clay Wirsing. I started off as a welding engineer back in 2017 at Newport News Shipbuilding. At the time I really didn’t have any idea what the global situation was with shipbuilding or maritime. And I can remember about a year after I started, some high-level officials from the Navy came in and talked to us about speeding up the pace of our shipyard in order to compete with China, and that was kind of my first introduction there to how far we’ve fallen behind as a maritime nation, especially in shipbuilding. Unfortunately, not a lot has changed since then in terms of actual shipbuilding capacity, but we do now see a ton of momentum, which has been great to see, with the SHIPS for America Act, a lot more public recognition of what’s going on. And so I just want to continue to contribute to that, and hope to see more people join the movement and let our politicians know that maritime is an important space for both our economy and national defense, and we need to have the right laws and policies that allow us to succeed in that domain.
Bill Cullifer: Thank you, Clay. Here’s how this works. Over the next 45 days, we’ll post each new voice at the StrongerNavy.org blog. Everyone gets about 10 minutes and the same three questions. Question number one: What’s working? Number two: What’s in the way? And three: What would they do to fix first? At the end of November 2026, we’ll publish a common-ground report: what these voices agree on, in their own words, as well as a summary of the entire series. So with that, Brent, any closing thoughts?
Brent Sadler: Yeah, just to reiterate, I mean, the last time that America had been in a situation where there’s this much political, public, industry interest in our shipbuilding and shipping sector, Nixon was in the White House. But the challenges with China today are very real and very threatening this decade. So if we are effective at getting a stronger maritime industrial base, and things like the SHIPS for America Act are part of that, we’ll be able to better deter China, and if we get into a war, to be able to sustain a wartime economy and sustain the Navy that’s necessary to fight and win that war. So it’s a very real threat. It’s a very real time in our history that we have to all kind of appreciate the challenges, but also the risk of inaction. And so hopefully we’ll see things moving forward. And the more voices that are out there, the more people that are engaged, the better. And thank you again for pulling this together.
Bill Cullifer: Clay, what about you?
Clay Wirsing: Well said, Brent. And I’ll just add to that, that a lot of countries, especially China, are coming and revisiting their maritime policy every five years, maybe a decade or so. As you mentioned, the U.S. hasn’t really had a major effort in revisiting or revising its policy since the Merchant Marine Act of 1970. So it’s long overdue. I hope to see some bills like the SHIPS for America Act come through and pass in Congress, and then not only that, but as we continue to move forward as a nation, that we continually revisit these issues and make sure that our maritime laws and policies are appropriate for the conditions that we face in our current period.
Bill Cullifer: Brent, Clay, thank you both. To everyone watching, weigh in. Reply on X and tell us what’s working, what’s in the way, and what you would fix first. While we argue, China plans. It’s time to start building America. Let’s roll.
Coming up
Next, the voices start answering the three questions. We’ll post each one here as it comes in.
While we argue, China plans. It’s time we started building.
References
[1] K&L Gates, “House Passes Historic NDAA Maritime Amendments,” July 24, 2026: https://www.klgates.com/thought-leadership/House-Passes-Historic-NDAA-Maritime-Amendments-7-24-2026
[2] S. 1541, SHIPS for America Act of 2025: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119s1541is/html/BILLS-119s1541is.htm