On February 13, 2026, the White House released America’s Maritime Action Plan (the “MAP”), as required by its April 9, 2025 Executive Order 14269 entitled “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance” (“EO 14269”).  The MAP represents the first substantive step toward implementation in the Administration’s plan to support and grow the U.S. merchant marine and commercial shipbuilding sector and significantly grow the overall maritime industrial base of the United States.

EO 14269 set out a broad goal for strengthening national economic and security interests by increasing shipbuilding capacity, expanding the fleet of both U.S.-flag and U.S.-built vessels, bolstering workforce training and education initiatives, and updating federal regulatory frameworks, and directed federal agencies to prepare a coordinated roadmap for realizing that goal.

With the release of the MAP, that roadmap is beginning to come into focus.  The MAP covers an extensive range of maritime initiatives — from fleet modernization and expansion to reforms to cargo and procurement commitment practices.  The MAP also emphasizes the need to grow the U.S. maritime workforce and underscores increasing shipbuilding capacity in the United States as a matter of national security and a cornerstone to the Administration’s strategy.

Among the proposals included in the MAP are:

• Mechanisms to secure funding for maritime initiatives through a proposed “Maritime Security Trust Fund”, which could be financed in part by fees assessed on foreign-built vessels calling at U.S. ports “to be assessed on the weight of the imported tonnage arriving on the vessel”. The projections include that “a fee of 1 cent per kilogram on foreign-built ships would yield roughly $66 billion in revenue over ten years and a fee of 25 cents per kilogram would yield close to $1.5 trillion in revenue” for the Maritime Security Trust Fund.
• Establishing a “Strategic Commercial Fleet,” “consisting of internationally trading U.S.-built vessels” which would receive financial support for construction and operations.
• Bringing foreign-built vessels under the U.S. flag as a transitional strategy.
• Modernizing and increasing support for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and State Maritime Academies to address maritime workforce challenges.

While the MAP is a clear step toward articulating a comprehensive domestic maritime revitalization strategy, many of its proposals will require congressional approval, new budget authorizations, and/or regulatory changes before they take shape or take effect.  Nonetheless, the MAP’s emphasis on new sources of funding, fleet expansion, and workforce development warrants close attention, and it will undoubtedly create opportunities for stakeholders and impact the global maritime economy in 2026 and beyond.