WASHINGTON – Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was presented Wednesday night with the 2007 Herbert H. Bateman Award from the American Shipbuilding Association for outstanding leadership in the promotion of a strong U.S. shipbuilding industrial base, her office said.

The 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, a press release from Collins’ office said.

The award “is the only award given by ASA that recognizes a member of Congress for their exceptional work on behalf of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, and I can think of no one more fitting to receive [it] than Susan M. Collins of Maine,” said Dugan Shipway, president of Bath Iron Works. “Since her election to the U.S. Senate in 1996, [she] has been a tireless and effective advocate for a strong Navy, for the shipbuilding industrial base of the United States and for the proud Maine shipbuilders of Bath Iron Works.”