Posted:
January 8, 2010
By Tom Bethel
National President
The American Maritime Officers Voluntary Political Action Fund is known to have created many jobs for our union. For example, the Maritime Security Act of 1996 would not have cleared Congress had it not been for the Capitol Hill contacts AMO had developed through the fund over many years. The legislation authorized the Maritime Security Program, and it brought AMO into the international commercial liner trades for the first time -- what began with four containerships now totals 15 MSP vessels manned by AMO engine and deck officers.
The AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund is also known to have saved jobs held by AMO members and applicants for AMO membership. During the mid-1990s war over the Jones Act, AMO was a leading force in lining up overwhelming bipartisan support for the domestic shipping law in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. A five-year effort first to repeal and then to amend the 1920 statute failed completely, and AMO members remained at work aboard hundreds of deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters merchant vessels under the U.S. flag.
In 2009, we saw several examples of how effective the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund is when it comes to saving jobs:
In 2010, the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund will be every bit as critical to the AMO employment base:
I urge every AMO member and applicant for AMO membership to participate in the fund this year to the greatest possible extent. The record confirms that the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund works as intended, that it saves jobs that are too often at real regulatory or legislative risk.
AMO VPAF: the next job you save may be your own
By Tom Bethel
National President
The American Maritime Officers Voluntary Political Action Fund is known to have created many jobs for our union. For example, the Maritime Security Act of 1996 would not have cleared Congress had it not been for the Capitol Hill contacts AMO had developed through the fund over many years. The legislation authorized the Maritime Security Program, and it brought AMO into the international commercial liner trades for the first time -- what began with four containerships now totals 15 MSP vessels manned by AMO engine and deck officers.
The AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund is also known to have saved jobs held by AMO members and applicants for AMO membership. During the mid-1990s war over the Jones Act, AMO was a leading force in lining up overwhelming bipartisan support for the domestic shipping law in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. A five-year effort first to repeal and then to amend the 1920 statute failed completely, and AMO members remained at work aboard hundreds of deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters merchant vessels under the U.S. flag.
In 2009, we saw several examples of how effective the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund is when it comes to saving jobs:
- The AMO legislative staff participated directly in the emergency strategizing that led to a Congressional reprieve for 13 steam-powered U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carriers from a hasty Environmental Protection Agency air emissions rule that would have ended the service lives of these AMO-manned vessels prematurely in 2012.
- Two days of discussion between AMO and key legislative aides resulted in the continued enforcement of the cargo preference law that holds 75 percent of food-aid exports financed by the federal government for U.S.-flagged merchant ships. Several vessels manned by AMO engine and deck officers are among those kept in productive and efficient service by the cargo preference mandate.
- Congress and the President approved full funding of the Maritime Security Program in fiscal 2010, which began October 1. The bills to authorize and appropriate the MSP money were promoted extensively by AMO, and they sailed through the House and the Senate with little or no challenge.
In 2010, the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund will be every bit as critical to the AMO employment base:
- Just days before Christmas 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency was back in view as it adopted tough new Clean Air Act restrictions on fuel exhaust from U.S.-flagged ocean-going cargo ships operating in U.S. coastal waters. The new rules could force many of these vessels out of service and put the cost of operating others out of reach.
Much of our union's work on this still-emerging issue will focus on mitigation -- limiting, if not eliminating, the threat to U.S. ships and the jobs they provide. AMO and the American maritime community at large have a credible collective case to make here, but the EPA rules will not be redrawn or reconsidered without Congressional intervention.
Meanwhile, it is important for everyone in our union to understand that this issue arose in the Executive Branch, not in the House or Senate -- this is a case of regulation run rampant, not a matter of federal lawmakers attempting to cripple what remains an extremely important industry. But members of the House and Senate can step in and make their views known to the EPA and to the White House.
- In the weeks ahead, House and Senate conferees will attempt to reconcile health care reform legislation.
The bill approved Christmas Eve by the Senate includes a 40-percent excise tax on employer-paid health insurance plans that cost at least $23,000 a year for family coverage -- a provision that is not included in the bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives.
The AMO Medical Plan does not meet or cross the Senate bill's financial threshold, so it appeared at the New Year that the excise tax would not apply in our union's case. However, the Senate bill is 2,000 pages long, so surprises that may lurk within are difficult to detect. Moreover, the numbers can change in House-Senate negotiations.
- In February 2010, the President will send Congress his proposed federal budget for fiscal 2011, which will begin next October 1. Our interests in the budget include the Maritime Security Program, the food aid export program (referred to commonly as "PL-480" or "Food for Peace") and the application of cargo preference (funded through the Maritime Administration in the Department of Transportation) to the humanitarian shipments, the Title XI U.S. merchant ship construction loan and mortgage guarantee program, and defense shipping through Military Sealift Command and MARAD charter.
- This year, AMO will help press for an end to the double taxation of imported cargoes that are transshipped by water from the U.S. port of entry to other domestic points to spur private investment in U.S.-flagged short sea shipping, and we will capitalize on Congressional interest in our union's recent unique proposal to develop new U.S.-flagged business opportunities and create new seagoing jobs for American merchant mariners in offshore energy markets along the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico.
I urge every AMO member and applicant for AMO membership to participate in the fund this year to the greatest possible extent. The record confirms that the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund works as intended, that it saves jobs that are too often at real regulatory or legislative risk.