SHIPYARD Act
Bill: S.1441 | Sponsor: Sen. Wicker, Roger F. (R-MS)
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Supplying Help to Infrastructure in Ports, Yards, and America's Repair Docks Act of 2021 or the SHIPYARD Act
This bill provides supplemental appropriations to the Department of Defense (DOD) for improving naval shipyard infrastructure. The bill designates the funding as emergency spending, which is exempt from discretionary spending limits.
DOD must make this funding directly available to the Department of the Navy. Funds must be used for specified purposes, including for public and private shipyard facilities, docks, dry docks, capital equipment improvements, and dredging efforts needed by shipyards.

To appropriate an additional amount to improve the Navy shipyard 
                  infrastructure of the United States.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Supplying Help to Infrastructure in 
Ports, Yards, and America's Repair Docks Act of 2021'' or the 
``SHIPYARD Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Since the beginning of our Nation, the four public 
        shipyards that support the United States Navy have continued to 
        be foundational cornerstones of the strategic infrastructure of 
        the United States, and those shipyards will continue to be so 
        in the future.
            (2) Although originally built in the age of sailing ships, 
        the shipyards have been incrementally updated overtime, but in 
        2021, are in need of a generational investment to modernize and 
        upgrade the outdated facilities to ensure they can continue to 
        repair the United States Navy for another 200 years. This Act 
        would provide the necessary authorities and appropriations to 
        make those strategic assets ready to meet the future demands of 
        the United States, while securing and expanding domestic 
        capabilities across many sectors of the economy critical to 
        ensuring the independence of the United States from, and 
        preventing over-reliance, on foreign commerce.
            (3) On November 1, 1767, Andrew Sprowle, a merchant and 
        ship owner, established Gosport Shipyard on the western shore 
        of the Elizabeth River, in the Colony of Virginia, under the 
        British flag. The shipyard developed and prospered as both a 
        naval and merchant shipyard, supporting the maritime industry 
        that was critical to the survival of the early colonies and 
        then to the fledgling United States. When the American 
        Revolution began, the infrastructure resident at this former 
        colonial shipyard became a nucleus in the Hampton Roads, 
        Virginia, area for the United States Navy. For more than 230 
        years, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard has assisted the United 
        States in winning nine major wars, putting an end to piracy, 
        sending the Great White Fleet around the world, supporting 
        scientific exploration of the Pacific, and opening Asia to 
        United States trade. Today, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard conducts 
        critical maintenance to the Nation's Nuclear Navy to include 
        aircraft carriers, ballistic missile submarines, and fast 
        attack submarines.
            (4) On June 12, 1800, under the administration of President 
        John Adams, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was established. The 
        Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is the United States Navy's oldest 
        continuously operating shipyard. In 1776, during the 
        Revolutionary War, the USS Raleigh was built in Kittery, Maine, 
        and became the first vessel to fly an American flag into 
        battle. For more than 221 years, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard 
        has contributed to the Nation's security and has been 
        instrumental in United States diplomacy, when, in 1905, 
        President Theodore Roosevelt selected the Portsmouth Naval 
        Shipyard as the location to host the Treaty of Portsmouth, 
        which ended the Russo-Japanese War. Today, the Portsmouth Naval 
        Shipyard overhauls, refuels, and modernizes the Nation's fast 
        attack submarine fleet.
            (5) In 1889, Congress approved a budget to purchase land 
        around Sinclair Inlet in Kitsap County, Washington. In 1892, 
        additional land was added and the United States Navy broke 
        ground for the construction of the first of six dry-docks that 
        would form what is now the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Since 
        that time, the shipyard was front and center in supporting the 
        Nation's efforts in World War I, World War II, and the Korean 
        War by constructing submarines, surface ships, and support 
        vessels required to win those wars. In late 1965, the USS 
        Sculpin (SSN 590) became the first nuclear-powered submarine 
        worked on at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The Shipyard site 
        at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton provides longer-term, full-
        service maintenance and inactivation and recycling work on 
        aircraft carriers, surface ships, and submarines, utilizing six 
        drydocks and adjacent piers.
            (6) On May 13, 1908, Navy Yard Pearl Harbor was officially 
        established on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, and the Navy Yard 
        has proven to be vital to the defense of the United States and 
        its interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The shipyard has been 
        instrumental in enabling the United States to secure sea-lanes 
        of communication and commerce that has strengthened the 
        Nation's ability to project power across the expansive Pacific 
        and Indian Oceans. For generations, the shipyard has supported 
        the global interests of the United States in a critical 
        geographic region. On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor and the 
        Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor were the scene of a devastating 
        attack on the United States by the Imperial Japanese Navy. 
        Despite the devastating attack, the shipyard and its workers 
        were able to return ships damaged in the attack back into 
        service and enabled the United States to win the Pacific War. 
        For more than 113 years, the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard's 
        strategic location in the Pacific has assured the safety and 
        prosperity of the United States through the maintenance of Navy 
        ships. Today the shipyard supports the maintenance of the 
        Navy's nuclear submarine fleet as well as surface ships.
            (7) In April 2013, the Navy provided Congress a public 
        shipyard investment plan, which identified investments needed 
        to optimize, improve, and rebuild shipyard facilities, 
        electrical infrastructure, environmental systems, and 
        equipment, and needed to improve the timely return of ships and 
        submarines back to the fleet following maintenance and 
        modernization, to support the combat readiness of the United 
        States. To this end, the Navy developed the Shipyard 
        Infrastructure Optimization Program, which is a comprehensive, 
        20-year, $21,000,000,000 effort to modernize infrastructure at 
        the four naval shipyards through--
                    (A) performing critical dry dock repairs;
                    (B) restoring and optimally placing shipyard 
                facilities; and
                    (C) replacing aging and deteriorating capital 
                equipment.
            (8) In addition to the Nation's public shipyards, the 
        United States continues to rely on the capacity and 
        capabilities of private new construction and repair shipyards 
        to meet the strategic maritime needs of the United States Navy, 
        the United States Coast Guard, and the Nation's maritime 
        industry. Such shipyards, located on every coast of the United 
        States, also require substantial recapitalization and 
        reconfiguration in order to meet the construction and 
        sustainment requirements of our maritime Nation. This Act 
        recognizes the vital role such private shipyards play in the 
        United States and accordingly authorizes and appropriates funds 
        to ensure they are able to continue to provide those strategic 
        capabilities in the future.

SEC. 3. NAVY SHIPYARD INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT.

    (a) Appropriation.--
            (1) In general.--Out of any money in the Treasury of the 
        United States not otherwise appropriated, there is 
        appropriated, as an additional amount for ``Defense Production 
        Act Purchases'', $25,000,000,000, to remain available until 
        expended, to improve, in accordance with subsection (b) and 
        using the authority provided by section 303(e) of the Defense 
        Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4533(e)), the Navy shipyard 
        infrastructure of the United States.
            (2) Supplement not supplant.--Amounts appropriated under 
        paragraph (1) shall supplement and not supplant other amounts 
        appropriated or otherwise made available for the purpose 
        described in paragraph (1).
            (3) Waiver of certain limitations.--During the 20-year 
        period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
        following requirements of the Defense Production Act of 1950 
        (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) shall not apply to amounts 
        appropriated under paragraph (1):
                    (A) The requirement for a determination of the 
                President under section 303(e)(1) of that Act (50 
                U.S.C. 4533(e)(1)).
                    (B) The requirement under section 304(e) of that 
                Act (50 U.S.C. 4534(e)) that amounts in the Defense 
                Production Act Fund in excess of the amount specified 
                in that subsection be paid into the general fund of the 
                Treasury at the end of a fiscal year.
            (4) Emergency designation.--The amount appropriated under 
        paragraph (1) is designated by the Congress as being for an 
        emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of 
        the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
        (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)(A)(i)).
    (b) Use of Funds.--
            (1) In general.--As soon as practicable after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall make 
        the amounts appropriated under subsection (a) directly 
        available to the Secretary of the Navy for obligation and 
        expenditure.
            (2) Allocation of funds.--The Secretary of the Navy shall 
        allocate the amounts appropriated under subsection (a) as 
        follows:
                    (A) $21,000,000,000 for Navy public shipyard 
                facilities, dock, dry dock, capital equipment 
                improvements, and dredging efforts needed by such 
                shipyards.
                    (B) $2,000,000,000 for Navy private new 
                construction shipyard facilities, dock, dry dock, 
                capital equipment improvements, and dredging efforts 
                needed by such shipyards.
                    (C) $2,000,000,000 for Navy private repair shipyard 
                facilities, dock, dry dock, capital equipment 
                improvements, and dredging efforts needed by such 
                shipyards.
            (3) Use of funds for procurement of certain services.--
        Notwithstanding any provision of the Defense Production Act of 
        1950 (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.), amounts appropriated under 
        subsection (a) may be used for the procurement of architect-
        engineer and construction services at Navy public shipyards.
            (4) Projects in addition to other construction projects.--
        Construction projects undertaken using amounts appropriated 
        under subsection (a) shall be in addition to and separate from 
        any military construction program authorized by any Act to 
        authorize appropriations for a fiscal year for military 
        activities of the Department of Defense and for military 
        construction.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Navy public shipyard.--The term ``Navy public 
        shipyard'' means the following:
                    (A) The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia.
                    (B) The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Hawaii.
                    (C) The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Maine.
                    (D) The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington.
            (2) Navy private new construction shipyard.--The term 
        ``Navy private new construction shipyard''--
                    (A) means any shipyard in which one or more 
                combatant or support vessels included in the most 
                recent plan submitted under section 231 of title 10, 
                United States Code, are being built or are planned to 
                be built; and
                    (B) includes vendors and suppliers of the shipyard 
                building or planning to build a combatant or support 
                vessel.
            (3) Navy private repair shipyard.--The term ``Navy private 
        repair shipyard''--
                    (A) means any shipyard that performs or is planned 
                to perform maintenance or modernization work on a 
                combatant or support vessel included in the most recent 
                plan submitted under section 231 of title 10, United 
                States Code; and
                    (B) includes vendors and suppliers of the shipyard 
                performing or planning to perform maintenance or 
                modernization work on a combatant or support vessel.
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