A bipartisan group of lawmakers and maritime industry leaders held a joint press conference Wednesday to press for passage of the SHIPS for America Act, legislation designed to revitalize the United States shipbuilding capacity and commercial maritime sector. Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-08), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, and Congressman Trent Kelly (R-MS-01), Chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, appeared alongside Matt Paxton, President of the Shipbuilders Council of America, and Brian Schoeneman, Chairman of USA Maritime.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, maritime advocates, and labor leaders will gather on April 22 at the U.S. Capitol to voice support for the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act, a sweeping legislative proposal designed to revive and strengthen the United States maritime industrial base. The press conference is scheduled for 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM EST at House Triangle on the Capitol’s East Front.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Department of Transportation failed to meet a core statutory obligation tied to its Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy: periodic reporting to Congress on the office’s activities, staffing, and program administration. The finding, released April 20, 2026, carries immediate weight as lawmakers prepare to deliberate on the reauthorization of federal surface transportation funding, which expires at the end of fiscal year 2026.

The authorization underpinning federal surface transportation programs expires at the end of fiscal year 2026, placing Congress in the position of deciding not only the funding levels for the next authorization cycle but the institutional structure through which freight policy is conceived, administered, and coordinated across the federal government. The Multimodal Freight Office, established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and still in an early operational phase, sits at the center of that decision.

Congressman John Garamendi (CA-08) and Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24) last week introduced the Transit Workforce Development Act, legislation that would restructure how federal bus grant funding can be deployed to address workforce shortages and training deficits confronting public transit agencies nationwide. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where Garamendi serves as a senior member. The legislation targets existing grant mechanisms under 49 U.

The collision over Washington, D.C. still lingers as one of those moments that reshapes policy almost overnight. Sixty-seven lives lost in a dense, complex airspace where military, civilian, and rotary traffic intersect exposed something deeper than a single operational failure. It showed how fragile layered systems can become when proximity, speed, and mixed-use airspace all converge at once. In response, Congressman John Garamendi and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee pushed forward the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act, better known as the ALERT Act.