From left, Navy Capt. Chris Causee, Navy Capt. Ron Flanders and Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research Dr. Brett Seidle enter the hearing room before a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee on March 11, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

WASHINGTON — The resurrection of military shipbuilding in the U.S. will hinge on improving wages and benefits for workers at shipyards, Navy officials and experts said Tuesday as lawmakers raised fears of cuts to shipyard workforces.

Experts testifying before a House Armed Services Committee subpanel cited labor shortages due to poor pay as the main reason for the Navy’s yearslong struggle to build ships on time and on budget.

Cost overruns for 46 ships that the Navy has under construction grew from $3.4 billion to $10.4 billion in the past budget year while delays for certain naval vessels have stretched up to three years.

“Nothing is more important than addressing the critical labor shortages that afflict all of the shipbuilding and public maintenance yards,” said Eric Labs, a senior analyst for naval forces and weapons at the Congressional Budget Office.

The assessment comes as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to revitalize commercial and military shipbuilding to compete with China while also substantially reducing the Defense Department’s civilian workforce.

Eric Labs, a senior analyst for naval forces and weapons at the Congressional Budget Office, testifies on March 11, 2025, during a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee subpanel on seapower and projection forces. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns in recent weeks that the pending cuts will result in the loss of shipyard employees who are already hard to keep in the job. Retention of critical tradesmen such as welders, shipfitters and pipefitters is especially difficult, Labs said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said Tuesday that she voted against advancing Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, John Phelan, because workers at the Navy’s Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine have not been exempted from “ill-considered layoffs.”

The naval yard largely works on the overhaul, repair and modernization of submarines and must hire about 550 workers annually to keep pace with national security goals, according to Shaheen.

Recruitment at shipyards has been difficult for years, Labs said. Few workers are willing to toil in hot, cold, dirty and unpleasant conditions for $20 to $21 per hour when Subway offers $18 per hour with benefits, he said.

“The differential between retail or even other manufacturing sectors in the areas that surround the shipyard has got to be much, much greater than it currently is,” Labs said, adding better benefits, more affordable housing and tax benefits can also help attract talent.

Brett Seidle, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said labor issues are the No. 1 problem facing shipbuilding and raising wages by three or four times would motivate people to apply.

“It’s a very purpose-driven life, supporting the Navy,” he said. “They’d be all about it.”

The Trump administration is expected to issue an executive order soon aimed at bolstering shipbuilding, including by reportedly raising wages for nuclear shipyard workers. Trump last week also announced he would create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House.

“We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact,” he told lawmakers in a speech to Congress.

Lawmakers from both parties said Tuesday that they were encouraged by the Trump administration’s focus on reinvigorating the shipbuilding industry. But reversing decades of manufacturing loss will be a steep hill to climb, said Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn.

Less than 15% of the American workforce is in manufacturing compared with 35% at the end of the Cold War, he said.

“When you look back at how we built 5,000 ships in World War II and were able to turn on the industrial base so quickly — I mean you actually had a workforce that was primed, whether it was commercial shipbuilding or auto manufacturing, to basically shift into that type of production,” Courtney said.

The U.S. today is severely lagging behind China in shipbuilding capacity and the size of its naval fleet.

Shelby Oakley, director of contracting and national security acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office, testifies on March 11, 2025, during a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee subpanel on sea power and projection forces. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

China is on pace to surpass 400 warships this year while the U.S. Navy, with 296 battle-force ships, essentially has “no more ships today than we did back in 2003,” said Shelby Oakley, director of contracting and national security acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office.

“That’s a serious problem,” she told lawmakers. “Especially at a time when our near-peer adversaries are rapidly expanding their fleets and fielding advanced technologies that could shift the balance of power away from the United States.”

If the Navy continues “with business as usual,” it could have a shrinking, less-capable fleet that ultimately is unable to “project the superior force the Navy has at its disposal today,” Oakley warned.

She said the Navy needs to overhaul its budget and acquisition processes, which often result in ship construction beginning before a steady design is in place and be more realistic with its business planning.

But rectifying workforce challenges should be the top priority, experts said.

“Without fully addressing the challenge of labor, all other efforts will be marginal,” Labs said.