14 October 2017

Inflection Point for American Seapower

By Seth Cropsey

Despite the cold civil war between the American left and right and the internecine struggles within each political party, there are occasional glimpses of agreement on issues as fundamental to the government’s purpose as the nation’s defense. 

In the same week of June that the guided-missile destroyer U.S.S. Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship in the approaches to Tokyo Bay, Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Congressman Rob Wittman (R-Va.) introduced a bill that would make it the U.S.’s declared policy to meet the Navy’s goal of 355 ships. Co-sponsors of the bill, called the SHIPs Act, included Senators Mazie Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Tim Kaine, and Jeanne Shaheen as well as Congressmen Colleen Hanabusa and Carol Shea-Porter. All of these co-sponsors are Democrats. The immediate task is to align the House and Senate versions of the bill.

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