Opinion

SEN KEVIN CRAMER: China builds for war while America waits on permits

A single major Chinese shipyard can exceed the total output of the entire U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry

By Kevin Cramer Fox News

Published June 10, 2026 5:00am EDT

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For too long, the debate over permitting reform has been confined to the wonky world of Washington insiders — endless discussions about transmission lines, pipelines, lawsuits, and administrative procedures. Policymakers fixate on the bark while missing the trees, let alone the forest. The stakes are far higher than connecting a natural gas plant, wind farm or data center to the grid. The most important reason for permitting reform is to grow the U.S. defense industrial base at the speed, scale and cost efficiency needed to deter a major conflict with China, and to quickly prevail if deterrence fails.

This imperative requires a sustained U.S. capability to outperform our adversaries in the production of weapons, ships, munitions, and material. Yet for more than two decades, America’s national security, economic policies, and stifling environmental review processes hollowed out domestic manufacturing and largely transferred our defense-related industrial capabilities and control of global supply chains to China.

The results are stark. China dominates global manufacturing, particularly those industries indispensable to defense. Its steel production exceeds America’s by roughly 12-to-1. In shipbuilding, China possesses capacity roughly 230 times that of the United States. A single major Chinese shipyard can exceed the total output of the entire U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry. American policymakers — both Democrats and Republicans — have been comatose on........

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