{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-of-the-navy-john-phelan-speaks-at-the-4th-annual-northeast-indiana-defense-summit/", "Secretary of the Navy John Phelan Speaks at the 4th\u00a0Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit", "2025-11-12", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Jim Banks", "B001299", "www.banks.senate.gov", "banks", "https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Fort Wayne, IN \u2013 Today, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan addressed the 4th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit hosted by Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Secretary Phelan underscored Indiana\u2019s vital role in rebuilding America\u2019s naval strength through modernization, workforce development, and manufacturing readiness.\n\nClick the image above to view Secretary Phelan\u2019s full Address or watch it here (1:13:00 \u2013 1:58:25)\n\nKey Remarks:\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cWe are rebuilding the fleet because the threat environment demands it. We are living through one of the most dangerous strategic environments in modern history. Warfare is being reshaped in real-time by drones, AI, autonomy, machine learning, and rapid iteration. A time where warfighters, coders, and manufacturers adapt capabilities midfight \u2013 and in some cases midday \u2013 to change the enemy\u2019s calculus. The ability to adapt and iterate is no longer a competitive edge. It\u2019s a key determinate of victory.\u201d\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cWe face a world characterized by China\u2019s unprecedented military buildup and the direct threat it poses to the United States and its allies.\u201d\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cThis is a world that demands a combat credible naval force. Ready to fight, ready to win, anytime, anywhere, against any adversary.\u201d\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cFor too long, our shipbuilding enterprise has been slowed by red tape, supply chain fragility and a shrinking workforce\u2026that era is ending\u2026[President Trump] armed us with the authorities, resources, and urgency to modernize the fleet.\u201d\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cShipbuilding and readiness remain the department and my top priorities. We are driving shipbuilding initiatives to increase tonnage, strengthen allied production lines, and attack the longstanding chokepoints that have dragged our enterprise behind the power curve. We\u2019re strengthening our shipyards across the country, but also the thousands of suppliers in states like Indiana who make the parts, forge the steel, and design the systems that keep the fleet alive. Every weld, every bolt, every circuit board built here contributes to sailors and marines\u2019 safety halfway around the world.\u201d\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cThe Navy\u2019s modernization effort isn\u2019t just about ships, it\u2019s about ensuring that when conflict comes \u2013 and history tells us it always does \u2013 we are ready on Day 1\u2026That\u2019s where manufacturing powerhouses like Indiana come in. You\u2019re the quiet giants of America\u2019s defense industrial base. Your machine shops, foundries, and innovation hubs, produce the materials and components that make our submarines silent, our ships survivable, and our sailors and marines unstoppable. This state turns university pipelines and veteran talent into high-tech power systems and mission components at scale. Indiana isn\u2019t just America\u2019s crossroads, it\u2019s one of our key engine rooms. Nowhere is that clearer than Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane.100 square miles, the third largest naval installation by area, and a critical strategic center for the Department of Navy, Crane drives expeditionary warfare, electronic warfare, hypersonics, and advanced sensing. It\u2019s a crown jewel for microelectronics and trusted hardware, and a crucial pillar of the Navy\u2019s leg of the nuclear triad.\u201d\n\nSecretary Phelan: \u201cRebuilding America\u2019s Navy is not a Navy project, it\u2019s a national imperative. Together, we will prove that the might of our fleet is built on the might of our people. That freedom of the seas depends on the freedom to build. And when America decides to lead, no rival on earth can match our ingenuity or will.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-of-the-navy-john-phelan-speaks-at-the-4th-annual-northeast-indiana-defense-summit/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7657920252531767, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}