The American Shipbuilding Association (ASA) announced that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is the 2007 recipient of the Herbert H. Bateman Award. This award will be presented on Wednesday, June 6th at 6:00 pm during ASA’s Salute to the 110th Congress reception.
Senator Collins was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and reelected in 2002, and is Ranking Member and former Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She also serves on the Armed Services Committee.
“Senator Collins is a consistent, strong advocate for the shipbuilding industry of the United States. She helped to defeat the Navy’s ‘One Shipyard’ policy to ensure that both Bath Iron Works and Ingalls continue to design and build surface combatants for the Navy. She promotes alternative financing methods for naval ships in order to increase the number of ships contracted annually, and she champions legislation to require that ships for our military be built in American shipyards,” stated Cynthia L. Brown, President of ASA.
The Herbert H. Bateman Award was established by the American Shipbuilding Association in 2000. This Award is the shipbuilding industry’s highest recognition of an individual in the Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, or industry who has demonstrated years of consistent, outstanding, and inspirational leadership in fighting for a stronger shipbuilding industry. Congressman Herb Bateman of Virginia, the award’s namesake, demonstrated these qualities throughout his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 – 2000.
Previous recipients of the Herbert H. Bateman award are: Herbert H. Bateman (R-VA); Olympia Snowe (R-ME); Gene Taylor (D-MS); Ted Stevens (R-AK); Duncan Hunter (R-CA); Trent Lott (R-MS), and;
Jo Ann Davis (R-VA).