Evaluate future of Pearl shipyard

Once Hawaii was annexed to the United States, a decade was all it took for the federal government to capitalize on the geographic position of its strategic asset by establishing a naval shipyard at Pearl Harbor. That facility has played a heroic role in Navy history, most famously repairing 10,000 vessels during World War II and the Korean War.

The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, since 1908, has never lost its inherent value. And given the current concern with political and economic developments in Asia, its forward position in the Pacific can only underscore its importance.

This is the consideration that should guide President Donald Trump in how to evaluate its workforce, currently on hold due to a federal hiring freeze instituted by the administration. The Pearl Harbor shipyard had hoped to hire more than 500 workers this year.

The freeze also affects unfilled jobs within the Department of Veterans Affairs. That includes an uncertain number of positions in Hawaii, unclear partly because about 80 positions have been identified as exempt; care for veterans has been long touted as a Trump priority.

However, the VA jobs concern those on Capitol Hill, who have written a letter urging that the freeze be lifted for them. Further, and perhaps even more urgently, a group of eight U.S. senators are seeking an exemption for civilian jobs at all Department of Navy shipyards, including Pearl Harbor.

Hawaii Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono are among the signatories on a letter sent to Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

“We believe a hiring freeze may have a severe and adverse impact on the ability of the Navy and public shipyards to meet critical national security requirements,” they wrote, citing a primary justification for the exemption.

They are right. It may. But it may be that a more nuanced adjustment should be made to keep a capable workforce in place while avoiding unnecessary spending.

In the case of Pearl Harbor in particular, there should be a straightforward case to make in defense of the operations. It’s the Navy’s largest ship repair facility between the West Coast and Asia. According to a Navy online publication about the facility, its crews are “the go-to team for rapid emergent repairs from Hawaii through Southwest Asia.”

The refocusing of U.S. military assets on Asia has been anticipated throughout the past administration and seems likely to loom large within the current one, which has its eye on China and North Korea, among other hot spots.

As a job center, the shipyard is unparalleled. It is the largest industrial employer in the state, with about 5,000 in its combined civilian and military workforce.

These are good-paying jobs, of critical economic importance to a state with little heavy manufacturing of its own. Certainly this is central to the concern among the state’s elected leaders, that the jobs be saved. They share this concern about all defense employment, which is one of Hawaii’s economic pillars.

But Pearl Harbor is not a mere jobs program: It is part of the national infrastructure needed to bolster national security. Exactly how its resources are deployed — the number of positions appropriated for which purposes — may bear some review to ensure federal funds are wisely spent.

It is not surprising that the new president would want to hold off on hiring, partly in deference to the Republican concern for growing government, partly because his defense agenda is still emerging.

However, once the appropriate Cabinet and White House personnel have been assembled, the administration should examine closely the functions Pearl Harbor can serve in this region, and allocate resources accordingly.

Rather than simply weathering a broad hiring freeze of unspecified length, Pearl Harbor’s shipyard deserves that kind of careful assessment.