📋 Tender Overview
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Angus King, in a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Seapower, spoke with Matthew Sermon, the program manager of the Maritime Industry Base, about the importance of strengthening Department of Defense (DoD) operations by removing unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to help expand the defense industrial base. During the exchange, Senator King cited the burdensome and slow process that companies are currently forced to go through when trying to contract with the DoD, and how it puts smaller organizations at a disadvantage.
Last spring, Senator King joined Governor Janet Mills, Senator Susan Collins and Representative Chellie Pingree in announcing the -- a newly established non-profit coalition of Maine defense companies, state agencies, community colleges and universities, and other vocational training organizations. The partnership was created to attract and train thousands of new employees to perform critical jobs at smaller contracting businesses that work within Maines defense industrial base. In Maine, the defense sector employs more than 200,000 people at over 150 companies, and, in 2021, defense spending in Maine totaled 3.2 billion.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator King has championed funding for both Bath Iron Works (BIW) and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY). Recently, Senator King and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, to maintain best practices for ship designing, building, and maintenance. Last year, he Mr. Frederick J. Stefany, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition to prioritize long-term investments in the defense industrial base -- including Bath Iron Works -- to avoid a trough between contracted work, resulting in a likely loss of workers and threatening American national security.
In the , Senator King secured authorization for the procurement of an additional DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that Bath Iron Works will build. In a of the Armed Service Committee, he outlined the importance of supporting our nations shipbuilding capacity, citing the three biggest challenges for the industry as workforce, workforce, workforce.
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