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Duffy Addresses the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Class of 2026, Jun. 22, 2026

June 22, 2026 · US Department of Transportation · 2:26:30

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy addressed the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s 90th commencement ceremony at Kings Point, New York, on June 22, 2026, in the Department of Transportation’s upload of the ceremony. The Academy graduated 188 new merchant marine and military officers, according to the Academy. Superintendent Rear Admiral Anthony J. Ceraolo introduced Duffy as “the most Kings Point-loving Secretary of Transportation in the history of Secretaries of Transportation,” and Duffy in turn introduced the commencement keynote speaker, U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll.

Duffy congratulated the parents and thanked the faculty, and he described how the academy became one of his causes: when he became Secretary, he said, parents reached out asking him to “focus on Kings Point — we need some love, we need some money, we need some energy,” and he sent Dr. Anne Bird as his person on the ground at the academy. To the class of 2026 — graduating, as he noted, in the nation’s 250th birthday year — he said duty will call and “your country needs you now more than ever.” He noted the academy’s Secretary’s Cup win, won back at Fenway, and the women’s basketball team’s NCAA appearance, as he recounted the year. His central commitment was the campus itself: the graduating class, he said, saw the start of the academy’s modernization but will not see the end of it, and “I promise you I will not stop fighting for the academy and for the money that you deserve and the campus that all of you deserve,” with the department asking Congress for “millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars” to bring the academy’s infrastructure up to the standard of an American academy, and the Army Corps of Engineers laying out the plans, as he described the work.

Why it matters

The 2026 commencement closes Duffy’s second Kings Point graduation as Secretary — he delivered the commencement address itself in 2025 — with the relationship converted into a standing funding fight: the campus modernization program now has the Secretary’s public, repeated commitment to carry the appropriations case to Congress year after year.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the academy modernization funding commitment restated June 22, 2026 — hundreds of millions of dollars sought from Congress for Kings Point’s infrastructure, with Army Corps of Engineers plans under way, as stated by Secretary Duffy. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “USMMA 2026 Graduation” (official upload, embedded above); class size and ceremony details per the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Remarks as delivered by Secretary Duffy at the ceremony.