By Emelie Rutherford
Mississippi’s Gene Taylor used to chide the Navy and shipbuilders about any perceived missteps they took when working to bolster the size of the service’s multi-hundred-ship fleet. Now the former Democratic congressman is working for a New Orleans tugboat company and preparing to take a boat licensing exam, all while maintaining connections in the nation’s capital.
Five months after losing his bid for an 11th term in the House to Republican Steven Palazzo, Taylor this month took a job as director of corporate development for E.N. Bisso & Son, which provides tugboat services on the Mississippi River.
Still, Taylor, who for the past four years chaired the House Armed Services Seapower and Exposition Forces subcommittee, hasn’t strayed far from Washington, D.C. The 57-year- old has kept his membership in the House of Representatives gym, stays in regular contact with family and former colleagues in area, and spoke at the Navy League’s annual conference two weeks ago.
Taylor warned shipbuilding advocates at the Sea Air Space exposition in National Harbor, Md., that they lost key allies in Congress in addition to him. Those include Former House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Ike Skelton, a Democrat from Missouri who also lost in the 2010 elections that Republicans dominated, and John Murtha, the all- powerful Democratic House Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman who died early last year.
“Your job just got tougher,” Taylor told the gathering of military and corporate shipbuilders. He said “many of the new decision-makers”–a reference to new House Republicans, who seized control of the chamber this year–“don’t really understand” the need he sees to build an increasing number of Navy ships.
“And many of them don’t care to understand this point,” he said. “They came here to balance the budget. So it becomes your job to make it clear how important it is.”
In an interview, Taylor said his new position at the private family-held tugboat company does not involve lobbying, or at least not the type would require him to register as a lobbyist. Still, he said he can provide tips on navigating Washington when issues arise such as policies related to rainwater on tugboat decks.
“One of the things I can bring to the table is saying, ‘(Rep.) Frank LoBiondo, great guy, see him, he’ll understand,” Taylor said, referring to the New Jersey Republican who chairs the House Transportation Committee’s maritime subcommittee.
Taylor said he will work to expand business for E.N. Bisso & Son, which conducts roughly 25 percent of all ship-assist work on the Mississippi River. Large cargo-carrying vessels need tugboats to maneuver the waterway.
“Obviously, we, like every other business in America, are always looking for a bigger market share and market opportunities in other places,” he said, adding the 18-tugboat company has “underutilized equipment.”
“Ideally, we’d love to have every tug and every crew working every day,” he said.
Taylor, a former 1st class petty officer in the Coast Guard Reserves, said he is yearning to get on his company’s tugboats. He is in the process of obtaining a license from the Coast Guard for operating a 100-ton ship.
He said E.N. Bisso & Son expects him to “be another set of eyes and ears out there, (and ask) how can we be more effective in the things we’re already doing.”
Some observers in Washington wonder if the outspoken and camera-friendly Taylor will remain satisfied at a tugboat company. He potentially could be picked to serve as President Barack Obama’s next Navy secretary, if current Secretary Ray Mabus is tapped to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is expected to retire this year.
Taylor told the Biloxi, Miss., newspaper the Sun Herald that his new employer’s stockholders asked if he would run for office again, and he said the only political position he would consider would be Navy secretary.
“If I was offered, I would have a hard time turning it down,” Taylor is quoted as saying.
Taylor’s shipbuilding interests in Congress were tied to more than just his chairmanship of the key Navy-overseeing subcommittee; the Ingalls shipyard is the biggest employer in the Mississippi 4th congressional district he represented. The shipyard was previously owned by Northrop Grumman [NOC] and now runs under the auspice of Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII], which spun off from the larger company last month.
The former congressman talked about some of his pet naval issues at the Navy League gathering this month. He warned about the vulnerability of Navy tanker ships to attack, an issue he cited in recent years when adding controversial requirements to defense authorization acts mandating some future Navy ships run on nuclear power.
Taylor also lauded the Navy’s decision last year to change its acquisition strategy for the Littoral Combat Ship. He touted a requirement he initiated to require the same Navy captain run the once-troubled program for the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System until the aircraft-carrier catapult system achieves its first launch. And he called on U.S. shipbuilders to modernize to be more competitive with advanced commercial shipyards in countries such as South Korea.
In the interview, Taylor said he has not minutely followed news out of Congress, where the new Republican majority in the House is clashing with the Democrat-run Senate over financial and cultural policy.
“I haven’t paid as much attention as you might think,” he said. “But everyone I talk to–Democrat, Republican, lobbyist, reporter–everybody starts with, the opening sentence, ‘It’s crazy up here.'”
One person Taylor has kept in touch with is Will Ebbs, the former HASC Seapower subcommittee chief of staff who started working last month as the corporate vice president of legislative affairs and federal policy at Huntington Ingalls Industries.