Expressing the Sense of the Senate That Ghislaine Maxwell Should Not Be Granted A Presidential Pardon or Any Form of Clemency for Her Crimes with Jeffrey Epstein Relating to the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Minors

Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, Americans are aware that many of the products we buy and sell in this country are manufactured in China, but fewer may know that most of the Chinese goods come across the ocean and into our ports on Chinese ships--whether they are flying the Chinese flag, whether they are owned or operated by Chinese companies, or are even built in Chinese shipyards.

But what may come as a shock is that those same ships could also carry deadly weapons. That is right. Hidden among the shipping containers carrying appliances, clothing, and household goods, might well be missile launchers and drone launching systems. Arriving undetected, they could target our cities, destroy our infrastructure, and kill our citizens.

This is a possibility American leaders must prepare for now. Naval analysts confirm that China is retrofitting cargo ships with deadly weapons: long-range strike and surface-to-air missiles, drone launching systems, and radar and tracking systems.

A large percentage of these vessels coming in and out of our ports are owned and operated by firms with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. What if one of these ships arrived in one of America's largest ports? Now, the best case scenario is our intelligence community would detect the weapons, enabling the Coast Guard to intercept and seize the Chinese ship. That is the best case scenario.

But there is a far more alarming possibility: An armed Chinese cargo carrier slips in, undetected, and it launches devastating attacks on the port, destroying vital infrastructure and killing hundreds, and possibly many, many more.

The Port of Houston is, for example, one of the largest by tonnage in our country. It is home to the world's largest petrochemical complex and a quarter of America's oil refining capacity. The explosions caused by a Chinese attack on the port would send clouds of carcinogens into the air and over nearby communities. Meanwhile, America's energy supply would be devastated, causing painful shortages and draining the economy of millions of dollars a day.

A similar disaster could play out at any of our other major ports-- Los Angeles, for example, our hub for transpacific trade; or Hampton Roads, VA, the east coast's deepest harbor and home to the world's largest naval base.

Now, neither of these situations is inevitable if we cut our reliance on Chinese vessels and we decide to make American ships again.

You see, the United States was once home to the world's largest commercial fleet, numbering 4,000 ships. Today, we manufacture only a handful of commercial vessels each year. China can build over a thousand. In total, the United States has fewer than 100 ocean-going commercial vessels; while China, they have nearly 6,000, the largest fleet in the world.

Letting our maritime industrial base continue to rust is a great risk. It doesn't just give China control over global supply chains and levers to constrain America's policy options; it presents the Chinese Communist Party opportunities every day to sneak weapons into our cities.

We have a choice. We can do nothing and invite a potential economic and national security disaster, or we can rebuild our fleet. We can end our dependence on Chinese ships, and we can open up a new era of American ship building.

I choose the latter. I choose restoring American maritime dominance.

The SHIPS for America Act is the best way to accomplish this. The bill will encourage the construction of new ships and shipyards through tax incentives. It will deliver deregulation and permitting reform to reduce costs and speed the delivery of new vessels. It also will modernize training programs at our maritime academies and recruit a new generation of mariners.

And the SHIPS Act will establish a maritime security trust fund to finance these programs, plus an expansion of the U.S.-flagged international fleet to 250 ships by the mid-2030s.

Now, we have a strong champion in President Trump, whose Maritime Action Plan is consistent with this bill.

China is retrofitting its commercial ships into covert warships. The evidence is clear. So too is the risk of allowing these vessels to dominate global trade and fill our ports because we have no ships of our own.

But we have a plan to protect our ports and people, to build and launch a new fleet manned by American mariners, flying the Stars and Stripes. And Congress should pass the SHIPS Act without delay.

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