SCA Hosts 2012 National Ship Repair Industry Conference
The 2012 National Ship Repair Industry Conference was this week. 110 people registered. By far the largest attendance we've ever had. The opening reception hosted by the Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association was very well attended and gave participants a chance to unwind from travel, see old friends and group up for dinner. Navy and Coast Guard Day had the following speaker line up:
VADM Kevin McCoy, COMNAVSEA
RADM Ron Rabago USCG, CG-4
Mr John Thackrah, Deputy Commander MSC
RDML Jim Shannon, SEA 21
RDML Dave Gale, Commander NRMC
RDML (sel) Larry Creevy, CFFC N43
RADM(ret) Craig Bone, ABS
RDML(ret) Joe Carnevale, SCA
After the speakers, we had a reception sponsored by the Jacksonville Area Ship Repair Association and Marriott ExecuStay followed by dinner.
Hill Day started with a great line up of speakers:
HON Buck McKeon, Chairman of the HASC
HON Randy Forbes, Chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee of the HASC
HON Duncan Hunter, Readiness Subcommittee of the HASC
HON Colleen Hanabusa, Readiness Subcommittee of the HASC
RDML Tim Matthews also came to speak to us as he could not on Tuesday and wanted to do it himself.
The group then went over to the ASNE President's Club Luncheon where we heard HON Steven Palazzo, another member of the Readiness Subcommittee of the HASC. The rest of the afternoon was spent in what we have described as a "Hill Crawl" where we broke into 12 groups and hit 35 Congressional offices meeting with members of Congress, their staffs or professional staff members of the key committees. The day concluded at the Virginia Ship Repair Association reception with great food and a glorious view of the Capital.
On Thursday we had the largest group ever attend Industry Day. Mike Torrech (AMH), John Lotshaw (HII Ingalls) and Michelle Tomaszewski (VSRA) tag teamed a briefing on the Lighthouse Campaign to develop common training and certification nationwide. CDR Pat Sanders from NAVSEA briefed us on their "Shipmate to Workmate" Program to locate Sailors who are being separated because the Navy is downsizing, not for any performance issue. Derry Pence (PSDSRA) briefed us on the work San Diego is doing in common training.
Several of the participants in NSRIC12 have described it as the best one ever. The bar keeps getting set higher but this is one of two events each year that focuses on Navy and Coast Guard ship maintenance and modernization. We need to make it worth while and valuable to the community.
Pitches and photographs from the event will be available early next week.
____
News from the Hill
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Congressman Norm Dicks (D, WA-6) Announce Retirements
In surprising news this week, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Congressman Norm Dicks (D, WA-6) announced their respective retirements from Congress. Senator Snowe serves on the Commerce Committee in the Senate and Congressman Dicks is the Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Committee. Both announcements came as surprises to staffs and other Congressional Members alike. Senator Snowe’s retirement is of particular interest because it will affect the ability of the Republicans to win a majority in the Senate.
____
Sequestration Update
House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon’s Sequestration Plan
Congressman Buck McKeon, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, was the kick off speaker for Hill Day of the 2012 National Ship Repair Industry Conference. He expressed his concerns on the very serious damage sequestration could inflict on America's armed forces. He has sponsored a bill, H.R. 3662, which would postpone the impact of sequestration on the Department of Defense by limiting the replacement of retiring or departing government employees. The bill would allow only one of three vacancies created by people voluntarily leaving government service to be filled until such time that the agency's employment is reduced by 10%. The Chairman feels that this will accomplish two goals. First is to postpone the application of sequestration on the Department of Defense for a year giving the Congress time to find and implement a better solution. The second goal is to reduce the size of government which has grown continuously while the private sector has contracted. The bill can be found HERE.
If you believe this is a good approach, you should get the word out. Those that agree should contact their members of Congress and ask them to support H.R. 3662.
A similar bill introduced by Senate Republicans in February (S. 2065) would undo the first year of automatic defense spending cuts set to begin in 2013 under sequestration by extending the federal employee pay freeze through June 2014 and hiring only one federal worker for every three who retire until the workforce is reduced by 5 percent.
____
In the News
SPR Drawdown Speculation
Over the past weeks, there has been much speculation about another drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a result of rising gas prices and concerns over refinery capacity in the Northeast. Recall, when the Administration decided last summer to draw down the SPR, over 40 Jones Act waivers were granted to foreign flagged vessels. In advance of any decision, the American Maritime Partnership (AMP), of which SCA is a member, issued the following press release reminding the Administration of new requirements to work with the domestic industry to move the oil. Click HERE to read more.
____
Budget Update
Navy Resource Boss Discusses FY13 Budget
SCA staff attended the Navy League's Special Topic Breakfast this week with keynote remarks by Vice Admiral John "Terry" Blake, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources, N8, OPNAV. As N8, VADM Blake is responsible for allocating the Navy’s limited resources based on current and future warfare requirements. Much of the discussion focused on the prospects of sequestration, which VADM Blake said absolutely cannot happen on the backs of the armed services. He also cautioned that those programs that have received additional funding for ten years as part of supplementals (OCO) - including ship maintenance and operations - will now have to be paid for out of the base defense budget, squeezing an already constricted baseline. Fleet readiness was also a topic of discussion. With more than 40% of the Navy's fleet underway on any given day, more resources are being required to maintain the OPTEMPO and maintain and deploy combat-ready ships.
VADM Blake's presentation is HERE.
Senate and House Budget Committee Defense Hearings Focus on Sequestration
This week both the Senate and House Budget Committees heard testimony from Secretary of Defense Panetta, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dempsey and DoD Comptroller Hale on the President's FY 2013 defense budget request. Panetta told both panels that sequestration would be "a disaster." In August, lawmakers reached a compromise that allowed the President to raise the debt limit but forced the Pentagon to reduce its budget by about $487 billion in the next decade, a decrease of roughly 8 percent. Under sequestration, that figure could double if President Obama and Congress fail by the end of this year to cut an additional $1.2 trillion in government spending over the next decade. If the sequestration cuts were imposed, defense spending in the Pentagon’s base budget would fall to 2007 levels, adjusted for inflation. Chairman Dempsey noted that even though the government has yet to plan for sequestration, private employers are already considering how the potential cuts will affect their workforce. According to Comptroller Hale, Pentagon and OMB lawyers are studying how the across-the-board sequester cuts would be applied, if it came to that. In a letter to Congress in November, Panetta had indicated a common percentage cut would be applied to every single Defense Department program. But Hale said the percentage reductions would probably apply to accounts — such as Navy shipbuilding or Army operations and maintenance — and there would be flexibility on how they were made to individual programs.
____
Policy Update
Members Voice Opposition to Another BRAC
A group of 41 Representatives sent a letter to the President on February 27 urging him to reconsider his intention to request two new rounds of military base closures. Under BRAC, an independent panel of nine commissioners is tasked with recommending which military bases should be closed to increase efficiency. The letter states: “…the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure is estimated to cost $37 billion to implement and the country will not realize net savings until 2018 at the earliest, well over the cost and time estimates originally given. It is entirely reasonable to expect conducting another round of BRAC will cost more than it saves in the near-term and thus will negate its value for deficit reduction.” Because the Obama administration needs congressional approval for another BRAC round, the Pentagon didn’t list any savings from the process in its budget request. Because lawmakers in both parties are opposing the request, a BRAC round is unlikely for next year, though 2014 or 2015 are possibilities. Members signing the letter included the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Seapower Subcommittee, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard Subcommittee and eight members of the Shipbuilding Caucus. A copy of the letter can be found HERE.
_____
Operations/Strategy Update
Russian Icebreaker Required for Operation Deep Freeze
This week Military Sealift Command (MSC) completed its annual resupply mission to Antarctica's McMurdo Station. Military Sealift Command-chartered container ship MV Green Wave delivered more than 6.8 million pounds of vital supplies in support of Operation Deep Freeze (ODF). ODF is the annual joint task force support to resupply the remote scientific outpost. Green Wave followed MSC-chartered tanker MT Maersk Peary, which brought more than 6.3 million gallons of crucial diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to McMurdo Station. A polar icebreaker is required for the break-in and sealift escort mission. These duties were conducted by CG icebreakers from 1955 until 2007. Due to the recent unavailability of a U.S. polar icebreaker, these operations were conducted by Swedish icebreaker ODEN from 2008 – 2011 and this year by the Russian icebreaker IGNATYUK. No U.S. government asset support for Deep Freeze is likely until USCGC POLAR STAR returns to service in late 2013.
A recent DHS presentation on the Antarctic strategy can be found HERE.