Senators move to block Pentagon from laying off public shipyard workers

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators today introduced legislation to exempt numerous positions at the Navy’s four public shipyards from the workforce reductions that have proliferated across the federal government since January.

The bill, dubbed “Protecting Public Naval Shipyards Act,” is co-sponsored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Maggie Hassen, D-N.H.; and Angus King, I-Maine. The bill prohibits the Defense Department from targeting any of the public shipyards in Maine, Washington state, Virginia or Hawaii for workforce reductions, specifically calling out tradespeople such as welders, pipefitters, engineers and positions associated with the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, among others for protection.

In March Adm. James Kilby, the Navy’s vice chief of naval operations, told lawmakers that public shipyards would be largely exempt from the firing of probationary federal employees and would not be subject to a hiring freeze, but today the senators said they want the protection codified.

“Our shipyard workforce represents an essential component of our national defense and preparedness — they should have never been subjected to this administration’s ill-considered hiring freezes,” said Shaheen. “The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workforce is supposed to be exempt from the hiring freeze, but there continues to be issues with implementation. Our bipartisan bill enshrines that exemption in federal law and ensures that no public shipyard is subjected to such chaos and uncertainty in the future, allowing them to focus instead on the vital role they play in our national security.”

RELATED: Navy’s shipyard revamp strategy evolves amid obstacles, years into $20B effort

Collins said the “bipartisan bill would protect the men and women at PNSY, and at all four of our nation’s public shipyards, helping sustain the critical contributions these shipyards make to our national defense, the readiness of our Navy, and the economies of their surrounding regions.”

Since taking office in April, Navy Secretary John Phelan has been on a spree visiting numerous public and private shipyards to include Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in April, accompanied by several senators now introducing the legislation. Most recently, he visited Hanwha’s recently purchased shipyard in Philadelphia.

Workforce reductions aside, the Navy’s public shipyards have been suffering a notorious backlog on fleet maintenance for years. It’s an issue that has now culminated with the newly minted CNO Adm. Daryl Caudle telling lawmakers he is seriously considering decommissioning early an otherwise viable submarine simply because of how long it has been unable to dive.