§8696 Navy Shipbuilding Workforce Development Special Incentive

Summary

The Secretary of the Navy must include a special workforce-development incentive in any request to build a Navy ship. The incentive must be between one quarter of one percent (0.25%) and one percent (1%) of the contract’s estimated cost. The Secretary may waive these rules if following them would cause unreasonable cost or delay, if existing programs are enough, if there are few workforce problems, or if it would harm national security. If the Secretary plans to waive the rules, Congress’s defense committees must get a written notice at least 30 days before the waiver that explains why. The Navy may only spend incentive money after the Navy’s service acquisition executive gets written promises of money from other contributors. Those contributors can include the prime contractor, a qualified subcontractor, state, county, or local governments, or industry groups. The incentive money spent can match the total promised contributions up to the incentive amount; if contributions are less than the required minimum, the Navy may spend that smaller amount. Money can fund seven types of activities, including housing and transport for workers, local training pipelines, school outreach and technical education, building or updating training facilities, direct workforce development costs, hiring or retention bonuses, and on-the-job training. The service acquisition executive must approve the spending and must certify to Congress within 30 days after approval that the matching and activity rules were followed and explain the benefits to the government and the Navy shipbuilding base. Defined terms: “covered contract” = a prime contract to build a Navy ship paid from Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy; “qualified subcontractor” = a subcontractor that will deliver the ship(s) to the Navy.