Posted:
July 19, 2012
The Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots share a peculiar perspective on what led to the recent rollback of a key U.S.-flag cargo preference requirement as part of a surface transportation authorization bill signed by the President July 2.
In separate but similar articles in their respective online news weeklies, these unions said the swift, stunning setback for U.S. shipping companies and American merchant mariners - in which the statutory U.S.-flag share of PL-480 "Food for Peace" exports was pared from 75 percent to 50 percent - was the work of "Republican leadership" in the House of Representatives. Neither MEBA nor the MM&P provided evidence to support this uneven, impractical view.
The language reducing the PL-480 cargo preference percentage was included in the House-Senate conference report on the transportation measure, which gave the green light to highway, mass transit, railroad and infrastructure projects nationwide over two years.
The conference report was negotiated and approved unanimously by a bloc of 47 Republican and Democratic Senators and House members serving on the Senate Environment and Public Works and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees. Many of these 47 Republican and Democratic Senators and House members are known to support the privately owned and operated U.S. merchant fleet in all domestic and international trades.
Once the completed conference report was approved without dissent by the 47 Democratic and Republican Senators and House members, the report - including the provision targeting U.S.-flag PL-480 cargo preference - went to the whole House of Representatives and to the whole Senate for up-or-down votes.
Hours later, just before the 4th of July Congressional recess, the conference report - which was not open to debate or amendment on the floor in the House or in the Senate - was approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both chambers.
MEBA was first in the rush to wrong judgment. "On Thursday, June 29, Republican House leadership made a deliberate attack on the U.S. maritime industry and other transportation jobs," the union said in its Telex Times, ignoring the participation of Democrats in this disturbing development.
Days later, the MM&P's Wheelhouse Weekly stated flatly: "U.S.-flag cargo preference shipping requirements will be significantly reduced under legislation put forth by the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives."
In a July 17 follow-up, Wheelhouse Weekly singled out a prominent Republican House member as the principal culprit, suggesting strongly but inaccurately that this Republican Congressman had participated in the House-Senate highway bill conference and had "offered language that guts U.S.-flag cargo preference requirements" as a way to help pay for the projects authorized in the legislation.
This second Wheelhouse Weekly article also quoted three prominent House Democrats who had objected to the highway bill's harmful cargo preference provision after the fact. But the MM&P newsletter did not point out that - unlike the Republican House member fingered inappropriately by the MM&P - two of these three Democratic Congressman had actually served on the House-Senate conference that signed off unanimously on the legislation.
Unlike MEBA and the MM&P, American Maritime Officers cannot lay blame for what happened without accurate, complete information - which every aggrieved U.S. maritime interest will have in due time. We cannot direct anger, frustration and disappointment fairly at one political party, or even at one specific lawmaker - this was a bipartisan bushwhacking, and it will take a bipartisan effort to make things right for U.S. shipping companies and American merchant mariners.
The bipartisan consensus behind the cargo preference provision was confirmed in the July 18 edition of Politico, a Washington newspaper that covers Congress and the Executive Branch.
According to Politico reporter Jessica Myers, "top lawmakers" in both chambers and of both parties had considered scaling back the PL-480 cargo preference requirement and eliminating its accompanying Ocean Freight Differential mechanism as far back as the federal debt ceiling negotiations in 2011.
"Vice President Joe Biden's deficit reduction group and the (House-Senate) supercommittee discussed it last year as a possible spending cut that both parties might find acceptable, said a source familiar with the issue," the Politico report said. "And, in the end, they did."
Politico also pointed out that it was "a Democratic president, who said during his 2008 campaign that 'ships flying Old Glory with American crews are important icons of our resolve' who made it law."
Ironically, it was Senate and House Republicans who took the lead on the 1985 PL-480 cargo preference compromise that was overturned by the June 2012 Democratic and Republican House and Senate votes on the highway legislation.
But the greater point here is that everything that keeps the U.S. merchant fleet afloat in domestic and international trades was the result of Republican and Democratic cooperation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, regardless of shifting majority control - the Maritime Security Act of 1996 and subsequent improvements to this law, an intact Jones Act, U.S.-flag cargo preference mandates in other government import and export trades, and official national security sealift policy that identifies U.S. merchant ships drawn from the private sector as the first source of ocean-borne military supply and support services worldwide.
This strong tradition of bipartisan legislative support of the U.S. merchant fleet reflects the broad appeal of our industry's common sense message, and it confirms that it takes two parties to reach one constructive conclusion on a given maritime policy issue.
MEBA and the MM&P would do well to remove the blinders and look objectively at the political world around them. The Republican Party is here, it is thriving, it controls the agenda in the House of Representatives and - as AMO has known since the mid-1970s - the GOP is receptive to our industry's views. We know from direct experience that many Republicans - in leadership positions and among the rank and file - want to know more about the U.S. merchant fleet and its enduring commitment to U.S. economic and national security interests.
In this specific case, MEBA and the MM&P let ideology lead to disingenuous conclusions. These unions would be far more practical and productive politically if they extended their Capitol Hill reach beyond one side of the aisle. Just as it took Republicans and Democrats together to cut the U.S.-flag share of PL-480 cargoes by one-third, it will take Republicans and Democrats together to overcome the consequences.
Tom Bethel
National President
Two unions, one uneven perspective on cargo preference rollback
The Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots share a peculiar perspective on what led to the recent rollback of a key U.S.-flag cargo preference requirement as part of a surface transportation authorization bill signed by the President July 2.
| 'This was a bipartisan bushwhacking, and it will take a bipartisan effort to make things right for U.S. shipping companies and American merchant mariners.' |
In separate but similar articles in their respective online news weeklies, these unions said the swift, stunning setback for U.S. shipping companies and American merchant mariners - in which the statutory U.S.-flag share of PL-480 "Food for Peace" exports was pared from 75 percent to 50 percent - was the work of "Republican leadership" in the House of Representatives. Neither MEBA nor the MM&P provided evidence to support this uneven, impractical view.
The language reducing the PL-480 cargo preference percentage was included in the House-Senate conference report on the transportation measure, which gave the green light to highway, mass transit, railroad and infrastructure projects nationwide over two years.
The conference report was negotiated and approved unanimously by a bloc of 47 Republican and Democratic Senators and House members serving on the Senate Environment and Public Works and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees. Many of these 47 Republican and Democratic Senators and House members are known to support the privately owned and operated U.S. merchant fleet in all domestic and international trades.
Once the completed conference report was approved without dissent by the 47 Democratic and Republican Senators and House members, the report - including the provision targeting U.S.-flag PL-480 cargo preference - went to the whole House of Representatives and to the whole Senate for up-or-down votes.
Hours later, just before the 4th of July Congressional recess, the conference report - which was not open to debate or amendment on the floor in the House or in the Senate - was approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both chambers.
MEBA was first in the rush to wrong judgment. "On Thursday, June 29, Republican House leadership made a deliberate attack on the U.S. maritime industry and other transportation jobs," the union said in its Telex Times, ignoring the participation of Democrats in this disturbing development.
Days later, the MM&P's Wheelhouse Weekly stated flatly: "U.S.-flag cargo preference shipping requirements will be significantly reduced under legislation put forth by the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives."
In a July 17 follow-up, Wheelhouse Weekly singled out a prominent Republican House member as the principal culprit, suggesting strongly but inaccurately that this Republican Congressman had participated in the House-Senate highway bill conference and had "offered language that guts U.S.-flag cargo preference requirements" as a way to help pay for the projects authorized in the legislation.
This second Wheelhouse Weekly article also quoted three prominent House Democrats who had objected to the highway bill's harmful cargo preference provision after the fact. But the MM&P newsletter did not point out that - unlike the Republican House member fingered inappropriately by the MM&P - two of these three Democratic Congressman had actually served on the House-Senate conference that signed off unanimously on the legislation.
Unlike MEBA and the MM&P, American Maritime Officers cannot lay blame for what happened without accurate, complete information - which every aggrieved U.S. maritime interest will have in due time. We cannot direct anger, frustration and disappointment fairly at one political party, or even at one specific lawmaker - this was a bipartisan bushwhacking, and it will take a bipartisan effort to make things right for U.S. shipping companies and American merchant mariners.
The bipartisan consensus behind the cargo preference provision was confirmed in the July 18 edition of Politico, a Washington newspaper that covers Congress and the Executive Branch.
According to Politico reporter Jessica Myers, "top lawmakers" in both chambers and of both parties had considered scaling back the PL-480 cargo preference requirement and eliminating its accompanying Ocean Freight Differential mechanism as far back as the federal debt ceiling negotiations in 2011.
"Vice President Joe Biden's deficit reduction group and the (House-Senate) supercommittee discussed it last year as a possible spending cut that both parties might find acceptable, said a source familiar with the issue," the Politico report said. "And, in the end, they did."
Politico also pointed out that it was "a Democratic president, who said during his 2008 campaign that 'ships flying Old Glory with American crews are important icons of our resolve' who made it law."
Ironically, it was Senate and House Republicans who took the lead on the 1985 PL-480 cargo preference compromise that was overturned by the June 2012 Democratic and Republican House and Senate votes on the highway legislation.
But the greater point here is that everything that keeps the U.S. merchant fleet afloat in domestic and international trades was the result of Republican and Democratic cooperation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, regardless of shifting majority control - the Maritime Security Act of 1996 and subsequent improvements to this law, an intact Jones Act, U.S.-flag cargo preference mandates in other government import and export trades, and official national security sealift policy that identifies U.S. merchant ships drawn from the private sector as the first source of ocean-borne military supply and support services worldwide.
This strong tradition of bipartisan legislative support of the U.S. merchant fleet reflects the broad appeal of our industry's common sense message, and it confirms that it takes two parties to reach one constructive conclusion on a given maritime policy issue.
MEBA and the MM&P would do well to remove the blinders and look objectively at the political world around them. The Republican Party is here, it is thriving, it controls the agenda in the House of Representatives and - as AMO has known since the mid-1970s - the GOP is receptive to our industry's views. We know from direct experience that many Republicans - in leadership positions and among the rank and file - want to know more about the U.S. merchant fleet and its enduring commitment to U.S. economic and national security interests.
In this specific case, MEBA and the MM&P let ideology lead to disingenuous conclusions. These unions would be far more practical and productive politically if they extended their Capitol Hill reach beyond one side of the aisle. Just as it took Republicans and Democrats together to cut the U.S.-flag share of PL-480 cargoes by one-third, it will take Republicans and Democrats together to overcome the consequences.
Tom Bethel
National President