What's New in the Reintroduced SHIPS for America Act?

On April 30, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), together with several original co-sponsors, reintroduced the SHIPS for America Act in the U.S. Senate, first introduced in December 2024, divided into two bills. Companion legislation was also introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA). This is a major, historic effort to revitalize the U.S. merchant marine. The legislation had to be reintroduced to be considered by the new U.S. Congress, which commenced in January.

Here, we concentrate on the differences between the December bill and the April bills. For a more general summary of the proposed legislation, see Sen. Kelly’s April 30 press release.

The two Senate bills—S. 1536 and S. 1541—have five original cosponsors: Republicans Todd Young (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Rick Scott (FL), and Democrats Tammy Baldwin (WI) and John Fetterman (PA). The second proposal consists of tax provisions, with the remaining balance of the original SHIPS Act referred to the Senate Commerce Committee, and the tax provisions referred to the Senate Finance Committee. In this fashion, the bills can move on separate tracks and avoid the potential delay of sequential consideration.

Although the current proposal is substantially the