When we asked Capt. Brent Sadler, USN (Ret.), how the SHIPS for America Act came together, he named a group most people have never heard of: Revolution in Shipping.
“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.” — Capt. Brent Sadler, USN (Ret.) [1]
Here’s what we know so far about the idea, the people behind it, and how it grew into the most comprehensive maritime bill in decades.
It started with a report
In May 2023, Brent and Heritage Foundation economist Peter St Onge published Regaining U.S. Maritime Power Requires a Revolution in Shipping [2]. The title became the name of the effort.
Paste this right after the opening paragraph that ends “…the most comprehensive maritime bill in decades.” That puts the video near the top, the same as your other posts: “`The report laid out the problem in plain numbers. America had fewer than 200 U.S.-flagged merchant ships, down from 636 at the end of the Cold War. U.S. yards had delivered no more than 20 large commercial ships a year since 2017, most of them for government. China, meanwhile, built more than 40% of the world’s new ships by tonnage and paid its shipbuilders $132 billion in direct subsidies from 2010 to 2018 [2].
“Nothing short of a revolution in U.S. shipping is required to compete with China’s world-class merchant fleet.” [2]
The answer it proposed wasn’t to copy China. It was a “blue ocean strategy”: build a new kind of American shipping and logistics where we can lead, not chase the old model where we can’t [2].
What it called for
The 2023 report asked Congress and the administration for five things [2]:
1. A national maritime strategy, replacing the 1989 sealift directive
2. A maritime innovation incubator, run through the Defense Department
3. Training, stipends and a fellowship for mariners and naval architects
4. Opportunity zones at ports and intermodal sites
5. Stronger tools against China’s unfair practices, including a better-resourced Federal Maritime Commission and waived port fees for U.S.-flagged ships
The people behind it
Revolution in Shipping isn’t a think tank or a lobby. As Brent describes it, it’s a working group of about a dozen people from industry, academia, government and the military, pulled together in Washington to work out “what would be the most workable, but most importantly effective, approach to reviving America’s maritime industrial base” [1].
The group works quietly, and we’re not naming its members here. Brent says it’s still active, helping shape the SHIPS for America Act and the administration’s executive orders on shipbuilding, and helping inform allies including Japan, South Korea, France and Australia as they invest in America’s maritime industrial base [1]. We hope to bring you some of those voices directly in the weeks ahead.
From vision to bill
The ideas kept growing after 2023. By 2025, Brent’s Heritage work had built them into a full program with five lines of effort (protect, ally, nurture, build and train). It called for a presidential maritime advisor, a dedicated trust fund paid for by fees on state-subsidized shipping, and a strategic commercial fleet of 250 ships over a decade [3].
The SHIPS for America Act was first introduced in December 2024 and reintroduced in April 2025 by Sens. Mark Kelly and Todd Young, with Reps. John Garamendi and Trent Kelly in the House [4]. Its core pieces will look familiar. Here’s what’s in it, in six parts [5]:
1. Leadership. A Maritime Security Advisor in the White House (Sec. 101), so for the first time one person owns the whole picture, from the Navy and Coast Guard to Commerce and Transportation.
2. Money that lasts. A Maritime Security Trust Fund (Sec. 201), so shipbuilding doesn’t start over every budget year.
3. Ships. A Strategic Commercial Fleet (Sec. 401) of American-built, American-crewed ships, about 250 over the next decade, ready to carry our cargo in peace and supply our forces in a crisis [3].
4. Shipyards. Grants and financing to build new ships and modernize the yards that build them.
5. Cargo. More government cargo moving on American ships (Sec. 411), which keeps those ships sailing and those crews working.
6. People. Training for the mariners, welders, shipfitters and naval architects we’re short on.
On July 22, the House passed its defense bill with a rewritten SHIPS for America Act of about 100 sections inside it [6]. House rules forced the revenue pieces into a separate bill, the Shipbuilding Investment and Workforce Act (H.R. 9911) [8]. The House version creates the Maritime Security Advisor and caps the trust fund at $20 billion, but it doesn’t yet name a source of money for it [9].
The Senate has not passed its version, and the final defense bill is expected after the November election. On October 9, the bill’s four sponsors, backed by maritime labor, asked Senate colleagues to urge leadership to keep the SHIPS provisions in the final bill [10].
In his July testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brent noted that the bill’s proposed fees on Chinese shipping became a basis for later administration action [7].
Why it matters
Big laws rarely start in a committee room. They start with a few people who see a problem clearly, write it down, and keep working on it long after the first report is published. Revolution in Shipping is a reminder that rebuilding America at sea is a long game, and that it takes people willing to stay with it.
Hear Brent explain the SHIPS for America Act in his own words in our America at Sea introduction with Brent and Clay Wirsing.
Join the conversation. What’s working, what’s in the way, and what would you fix first? Tell us on X at @StrongerNavy.
While we argue, China plans. It’s time we started building.
Americans for a Stronger Navy is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization. This post is educational and does not urge support for or opposition to any legislation.
References
[1] Capt. Brent Sadler, USN (Ret.), interview, America at Sea: Voices That Matter, October 2026: https://strongernavy.org/america-at-sea-the-ships-act-the-shipyard-floor-and-why-it-matters/
[2] Brent D. Sadler and Peter St Onge, “Regaining U.S. Maritime Power Requires a Revolution in Shipping,” Heritage Foundation Special Report No. 272, May 15, 2023: https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/SR272.pdf
[3] Brent Sadler, “Reviving America’s Maritime Strength: Comprehensive by Necessity,” Heritage Foundation, July 24, 2025: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/reviving-americas-maritime-strength-comprehensive-necessity
[4] Sen. Todd Young, “Young, Kelly Introduce SHIPS for America Act,” April 2025: https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/young-kelly-introduce-ships-for-america-act-to-revitalize-u-s-shipbuilding-and-commercial-maritime-industries/
[5] S. 1541, SHIPS for America Act of 2025: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119s1541is/html/BILLS-119s1541is.htm
[6] 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
[7] Statement of Capt. Brent Sadler, USN (Ret.), House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, July 22, 2026: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20260722/119432/HHRG-119-FA05-Wstate-SadlerB-20260722.pdf
[8] Brent Sadler, “Maritime Legislation: Explainer and Next Steps,” Heritage Foundation, August 12, 2026: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/maritime-legislation-explainer-and-next-steps
[9] CrossGov, “US Shipbuilding Push Rides on the NDAA,” October 11, 2026: https://crossgov.com/us-shipbuilding-push-rides-on-the-ndaa-ships-act-provisions-a-20-billion-trust-fund-and-koreas-150-billion-pledge/
[10] Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, “Senate Sign-On Letter: Urge Congressional Leadership to Include SHIPS Act Provisions in FY2027 NDAA,” October 9, 2026: https://ttd.org/policy/letters-to-congress/senate-sign-on-letter-urge-congressional-leadership-to-include-ships-act-provisions-in-fy2027-ndaa/