{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-hyde-smith-murray-urge-swift-ice-pact-implementation-to-boost-us-shipbuilding-and-bolster-security-in-polar-regions", "Murphy, Hyde-Smith, Murray Urge Swift ICE Pact Implementation To Boost U.S. Shipbuilding And Bolster Security In Polar Regions", "2024-10-02", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", "chrismurphy", "https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Wednesday joined U.S. Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in sending a bipartisan letter to President Biden expressing support for robust, thoughtful, and timely implementation of the recently announced Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact\u2014a trilateral partnership with Finland and Canada to work together on the production of polar icebreakers and other capabilities. In their letter, the senators underscored the strategic importance of deepening cooperation with America\u2019s allies, strengthening the domestic shipbuilding industry, and addressing mounting Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The senators welcomed initial steps taken by the Biden-Harris Administration and NATO to take on these challenges and urged collaboration with Congress to ensure the entire federal government is coordinating to maximize the success of ICE Pact.\n\nThe senators pointed to the threat posed by Russia and China\u2019s growing presence in the region: \u201cIn response to the changing physical environment and growing international pressure following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has significantly built up its military footprint in the Arctic and re-opened several Soviet-era military bases. China, often in close coordination with Russia, has made critical investments to enable exploitation of natural resources above the Arctic Circle. In 2018, China put forth its own ambitious Arctic Policy and subsequently referenced the Arctic in its Five-Year Plan released in 2021 for the first time. Chinese fishing fleets have also repeatedly engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing off the coast of Alaska, which must be deterred to preserve local ecosystems critical to domestic communities.\u201d\n\nThe senators emphasized the importance of working with allies and partners to build domestic shipbuilding capacity and ensure regional stability: \u201cIn this moment of geopolitical upheaval, it is critical for the United States and our allies to be proactive in rising together to meet difficult challenges in the Arctic and Antarctic. Year-round presence and situational awareness in these areas is critical to enforcing the rules-based order in the high-latitudes, protecting freedom of navigation, and ensuring that natural resource extraction abides by environmental rules and regulations. A reliable icebreaker fleet operated by the U.S. and our allies is critical to achieving these strategic objectives, especially in the Arctic Circle.\u201d\n\nThe senators continued: \u201cBy combining American industrial strength with the icebreaker design and shipbuilding experience of Finnish and Canadian partners, we see great potential in ICE Pact to bolster international collaboration in the Arctic and Antarctic broadly. The Pact holds promise for better meeting U.S. and NATO maritime security needs in the Arctic and polar regions, especially as efforts to produce the Polar Security Cutter fleet continue. Increased NATO icebreaker presence has the potential to free up maritime assets assigned to patrols near the Arctic and allow U.S. cutters and ships to support additional missions below the Arctic Circle \u2013 including scientific research, search and rescue, and protection of maritime resources. If executed properly, the Pact will allow us to avoid being outpaced by foreign adversaries in icebreaker capabilities, and to enhance the industrial, scientific, and maritime heft of the United States and our allies.\u201d\n\nFull text of the letter is available HERE and below:\n\nPresident Biden,\n\nWe write to express our support for a robust, thoughtful, and timely implementation of the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, announced at the Washington NATO summit in July. This trilateral partnership with Canada and Finland has great potential to deepen cooperation with key allies, to strengthen our domestic shipbuilding industry and workforce, and to advance U.S. and allied security interests and international law in the Arctic and polar regions. We hope to work with your Administration to ensure the entire federal government is organized behind maximizing the success of ICE Pact.\n\nAs areas increasingly impacted by mounting Russian and Chinese activity, the Arctic and Antarctic regions\u2019 strategic importance to the United States is growing. Warming temperatures are significantly altering the physical landscapes at the North and South Poles, opening new maritime lanes for international traffic, impacting seasons for recreational travel, and disrupting native wildlife habitats.\n\nIn response to the changing physical environment and growing international pressure following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has significantly built up its military footprint in the Arctic and re-opened several Soviet-era military bases. China, often in close coordination with Russia, has made critical investments to enable exploitation of natural resources above the Arctic Circle. In 2018, China put forth its own ambitious Arctic Policy and subsequently referenced the Arctic in its Five-Year Plan released in 2021 for the first time. Chinese fishing fleets have also repeatedly engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing off the coast of Alaska, which must be deterred to preserve local ecosystems critical to domestic communities.\n\nIn this moment of geopolitical upheaval, it is critical for the United States and our allies to be proactive in rising together to meet difficult challenges in the Arctic and Antarctic. Year-round presence and situational awareness in these areas is critical to enforcing the rules-based order in the high-latitudes, protecting freedom of navigation, and ensuring that natural resource extraction abides by environmental rules and regulations. A reliable icebreaker fleet operated by the U.S. and our allies is critical to achieving these strategic objectives, especially in the Arctic Circle.\n\nWe welcome initial steps taken by your Administration and NATO to address these challenges and pressing needs. The Department of Defense\u2019s 2024 Arctic Strategy laid out a useful roadmap for enhancing U.S. and allied capabilities and preserving stability in the Arctic region \u2013 and was conveniently released just after Finland and Sweden\u2019s accession to NATO brought 7 of 8 Arctic countries into the Alliance. ICE Pact was then rolled out on July 11, 2024, and built on that strategy, seizing the new opportunities brought by NATO\u2019s enhanced Arctic presence and tapping into the expertise of our partners.\n\nICE Pact has the potential to build upon this foundation and become a key trilateral partnership between the United States, Canada, and Finland that deepens collaboration on national security matters in the polar and Arctic regions. As laid out in its announcement, the Pact\u2019s central focus will be a joint effort to build top-of-the-line polar icebreakers by pooling and sharing expertise. The partnership aims to strengthen the shipbuilding industry of each country and to generate good jobs at shipyards and related businesses all over, while meeting key national security needs in which the United States and NATO allies have been lagging. According to U.S. Coast Guard data, Russia currently possesses 36 government-owned and operated icebreakers while China \u2013 despite not being an Arctic nation \u2013 has a fleet of four. By comparison, the United States has just two operational polar icebreakers and has been far too slow in advancing our polar icebreaker recapitalization. Without sufficient icebreaker capacity, the U.S. Coast Guard is often forced to divert assets needed elsewhere to meet Arctic mission needs.\n\nBy combining American industrial strength with the icebreaker design and shipbuilding experience of Finnish and Canadian partners, we see great potential in ICE Pact to bolster international collaboration in the Arctic and Antarctic broadly. The Pact holds promise for better meeting U.S. and NATO maritime security needs in the Arctic and polar regions, especially as efforts to produce the Polar Security Cutter fleet continue. Increased NATO icebreaker presence has the potential to free up maritime assets assigned to patrols near the Arctic and allow U.S. cutters and ships to support additional missions below the Arctic Circle \u2013 including scientific research, search and rescue, and protection of maritime resources. If executed properly, the Pact will allow us to avoid being outpaced by foreign adversaries in icebreaker capabilities, and to enhance the industrial, scientific, and maritime heft of the United States and our allies.\n\nAs work is underway with Canadian and Finnish counterparts to flesh out the Pact\u2019s details, we want to ensure the initiative achieves its fullest potential \u2013 with strong coordination across the U.S. federal government. To this end, we respectfully request responses to the following questions no later than 45 days from today to inform Congress\u2019s work on related authorization and funding issues:\n\nWhat is the Pact\u2019s anticipated long-term impact to U.S. shipbuilding capacity and how will collaboration with Canadian and Finnish shipbuilders improve the efficiency and resiliency of our shipbuilding industrial base?\n\nHow will ICE Pact impact the procurement plan and construction timeline for the Polar Security Cutter program, as well as other U.S. Coast Guard shipbuilding programs? What are the potential benefits of ICE Pact to furthering existing and future Coast Guard shipbuilding efforts?\n\nHow will the ICE Pact initiative align with NATO\u2019s current icebreaker capability requirements, and will it be necessary to revise these targets in future budget cycles to encourage Allies and partners to purchase icebreakers built in American, Canadian, or Finnish shipyards?\n\nWhat is the Administration\u2019s plan to solicit and incorporate feedback from all relevant stakeholders \u2013 including but not limited to the U.S. shipbuilding industry, workforce representatives, the Coast Guard-Navy Integrated Program Office, the Coast Guard, and the Department of Homeland Security \u2013 throughout negotiations over ICE Pact implementation?\n\nWhat, if any, regulatory and statutory changes does the Administration anticipate will be needed to support ICE Pact\u2019s implementation \u2013 particularly in its workforce development and information sharing components?\n\nThank you again for your Administration\u2019s close attention to Arctic and polar security. We look forward to reviewing your prompt responses and to working with you on the ICE Pact\u2019s implementation in the months and years ahead.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "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.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-hyde-smith-murray-urge-swift-ice-pact-implementation-to-boost-us-shipbuilding-and-bolster-security-in-polar-regions"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9972299449145794, "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"}