Maybe it is a human trait, or maybe a Washington, D.C. trait,
but when confronted with a difficult problem with unpalatable
solutions, there is usually an impulse to delay the moment of
difficult decision by ordering a study. The U.S. merchant marine
industry is the poster child for this behavior. The industry has
been studied and studied, and is currently being studied, but
studies don't build ships -- shipyards build ships.
Going back to the Lynch Committee in 1870, the U.S. government
has regularly produced studies on how to revive the U.S. merchant
marine.
President Trump's April 2025 maritime executive
ordersticks to the pattern and directs the production of
more studies albeit together with an action plan that may be
released early this year. Meanwhile, nothing is happening to spur
the building of commercial ocean-going ships in the United States
even though a bipartisan group of members of Congress and President
Trump have said that goal is a national policy
