Posted:
November 13, 2012
The harmful effect of legislation enacted last July was felt for the first time this week as Liberty Maritime Corp. prepared to reflag at least one U.S. bulk carrier to the Marshall Islands.
The vessel is the Liberty Spirit, one of five bulkers owned and operated by Liberty Maritime. These bulk carriers operate primarily in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's PL-480 food aid export program.
The Liberty Spirit - now manned in all licensed positions by American Maritime Officers - has been laid up in Orange, Texas, since Oct. 1, and two Marshall Islands flag state inspectors were aboard the ship earlier this month.
One Liberty executive aboard the Liberty Spirit in Orange said the flag-out paperwork required by the Maritime Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard had been completed.
"The loss of the Liberty Spirit to a foreign flag - and the loss of jobs held by members of American Maritime Officers - is a direct consequence of last-minute language slipped into a House-Senate conference report on a politically popular two-year surface transportation authorization bill last June," AMO National President Tom Bethel noted.
"This offensive, dangerous language trimmed the statutory U.S.-flag share of PL-480 exports from 75 percent to 50 percent - a one-third reduction that, left standing, would cause significant private sector job loss at sea and ashore, waste millions of dollars in private capital investment, force other productive U.S.-flag merchant vessels into foreign registries or permanent layup for eventual sale for scrap and strain U.S. ability to mobilize and sustain U.S. Armed Forces overseas in national security emergencies."
The conference report language at issue overturned a 1985 legislative compromise that raised the U.S.-flag PL-480 allocation from 50 percent as provided for in the Cargo Preference Act of 1954 to 75 percent. In exchange for the higher PL-480 cargo share, U.S. maritime interests relinquished all cargo preference access to "commercial" or "commercial-type" exports financed by USDA.
"This PL-480 cargo preference cutback flew in under the radar in the last hours of House-Senate negotiations on a highway spending bill seen by everyone as an election year jobs bill," Bethel explained. "We now know it had been agreed to by both the administration and Congressional leaders of both political parties at least 18 months beforehand - the surface transportation conference report provided the first opportunity to drop it into legislation no one in either party or in either chamber wanted to vote against."
The surface transportation bill conference report - approved unanimously by 47 House and Senate Democrat and Republican conferees - was agreed to by overwhelming bipartisan margins in House and Senate floor votes late in June under rules that did not allow amendments. The President signed the legislation into law during the Fourth of July Congressional recess.
"As I said before, it's ironic that the only thing Congress and the White House were able to compromise on was to overturn a compromise," Bethel said.
Bethel added: "Many of the U.S. merchant ships and all of the civilian American merchant mariners participating in the PL-480 program are critically important to defense planning. These ships and these mariners provide strategic sealift and other military support services the Department of Defense simply cannot provide. Bulk carriers may not be suited for defense cargoes, but the officers and crews aboard bulk carriers like the Liberty Spirit are among the 'seagoing first responders' called upon by DOD in a crisis.
"The Liberty Spirit and four other Liberty Maritime bulk carriers - Liberty Sun, Liberty Grace, Liberty Glory and Liberty Eagle, all manned in all licensed positions by AMO - were among the vessels built at private expense on the strength of a cargo preference mandate in place under federal law for 27 years, and this investment is at real risk because of new legislative language that many lawmakers probably never had the opportunity to read.
"Our union is working quietly in Washington to find a practical, bipartisan fix for the difficult problems arising from the highway bill. There is too much at stake, not only for civilian American merchant mariners and for private sector U.S. merchant shipping companies, but also for national security."
Liberty Maritime to reflag bulk carrier to Marshall Islands as 'direct consequence' of PL-480 cargo preference cutback
The harmful effect of legislation enacted last July was felt for the first time this week as Liberty Maritime Corp. prepared to reflag at least one U.S. bulk carrier to the Marshall Islands.
The vessel is the Liberty Spirit, one of five bulkers owned and operated by Liberty Maritime. These bulk carriers operate primarily in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's PL-480 food aid export program.
The Liberty Spirit - now manned in all licensed positions by American Maritime Officers - has been laid up in Orange, Texas, since Oct. 1, and two Marshall Islands flag state inspectors were aboard the ship earlier this month.
One Liberty executive aboard the Liberty Spirit in Orange said the flag-out paperwork required by the Maritime Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard had been completed.
"The loss of the Liberty Spirit to a foreign flag - and the loss of jobs held by members of American Maritime Officers - is a direct consequence of last-minute language slipped into a House-Senate conference report on a politically popular two-year surface transportation authorization bill last June," AMO National President Tom Bethel noted.
"This offensive, dangerous language trimmed the statutory U.S.-flag share of PL-480 exports from 75 percent to 50 percent - a one-third reduction that, left standing, would cause significant private sector job loss at sea and ashore, waste millions of dollars in private capital investment, force other productive U.S.-flag merchant vessels into foreign registries or permanent layup for eventual sale for scrap and strain U.S. ability to mobilize and sustain U.S. Armed Forces overseas in national security emergencies."
The conference report language at issue overturned a 1985 legislative compromise that raised the U.S.-flag PL-480 allocation from 50 percent as provided for in the Cargo Preference Act of 1954 to 75 percent. In exchange for the higher PL-480 cargo share, U.S. maritime interests relinquished all cargo preference access to "commercial" or "commercial-type" exports financed by USDA.
"This PL-480 cargo preference cutback flew in under the radar in the last hours of House-Senate negotiations on a highway spending bill seen by everyone as an election year jobs bill," Bethel explained. "We now know it had been agreed to by both the administration and Congressional leaders of both political parties at least 18 months beforehand - the surface transportation conference report provided the first opportunity to drop it into legislation no one in either party or in either chamber wanted to vote against."
The surface transportation bill conference report - approved unanimously by 47 House and Senate Democrat and Republican conferees - was agreed to by overwhelming bipartisan margins in House and Senate floor votes late in June under rules that did not allow amendments. The President signed the legislation into law during the Fourth of July Congressional recess.
"As I said before, it's ironic that the only thing Congress and the White House were able to compromise on was to overturn a compromise," Bethel said.
Bethel added: "Many of the U.S. merchant ships and all of the civilian American merchant mariners participating in the PL-480 program are critically important to defense planning. These ships and these mariners provide strategic sealift and other military support services the Department of Defense simply cannot provide. Bulk carriers may not be suited for defense cargoes, but the officers and crews aboard bulk carriers like the Liberty Spirit are among the 'seagoing first responders' called upon by DOD in a crisis.
"The Liberty Spirit and four other Liberty Maritime bulk carriers - Liberty Sun, Liberty Grace, Liberty Glory and Liberty Eagle, all manned in all licensed positions by AMO - were among the vessels built at private expense on the strength of a cargo preference mandate in place under federal law for 27 years, and this investment is at real risk because of new legislative language that many lawmakers probably never had the opportunity to read.
"Our union is working quietly in Washington to find a practical, bipartisan fix for the difficult problems arising from the highway bill. There is too much at stake, not only for civilian American merchant mariners and for private sector U.S. merchant shipping companies, but also for national security."