More than 20,000 US workers leave their families from two to four months at a time to crew our US deep-sea merchant marine fleet. Whether it was bringing much needed gasoline to New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, supporting our troops throughout the world, or providing much needed food aid to our brothers and sisters in need throughout the world, our US mariners have consistently answered the call.
However, there are always folks who seem to dream of a day that US mariners can be replaced by seafarers from the developing world, so that those who have much, can save more on shipping, and have even more.
Over the last few weeks, there have been numerous critical comments been made about US maritime policies. This is a very important debate for active mariners, the hundreds of cadets and trainees preparing for a maritime career, and the tens of thousands of mariners who work in the oil patch, along our rivers and lakes, and sail our ferries. Because it is important to mariners, it is also important to AOS USA.
1.
Administration to Dismantle U.S. Merchant Marine?:Reduction in cargo preference shipments just the first step.
Tony Munoz
February 27, 2013
As the administration and Congress continue to batter the American psyche with doomsday terms like "debt ceiling," "fiscal cliff" and "sequestration," the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been busy behind the scenes dismantling the U.S. Merchant Marine. After funding a decade of war and bailing out Wall Street and the banks, a gridlocked and dysfunctional government's only answer to deficit reduction appears to be the shutdown of basic services for its citizens and the gradual elimination of funding for the U.S. Merchant Marine (USSM).
The USMM has served the United States for more than two hundred years and has supported U.S. military operations around the world during every conflict this nation has been involved with. But, to no one's surprise, the White House seems intent on ceasing operations of the USMM. Since taking office, the administration has provided more Jones Act waivers than any other administration and, just a few months ago, it hacked the USMM's percentage of cargo preference shipments of food aid from 75% to 50% before any one even knew what hit them. Now it intends to write the final chapter of the USMM with the scribble of a pen on another backroom deal.
President Obama and DOT Secretary LaHood have never recognized the maritime sector as part of the U.S. infrastructure. They provided MARAD with $433 million while providing air, truck and rail an additional $495 billion to rebuild their systems. Furthermore, the administration ensured that America's Marine Highway would be tabled until 2017 or at least pushed back to the next administration.
So How's That Working Out...?
As part of its deficit reduction plan, the White House wants to send money to starving nations under a new food aid scheme, which includes NGOs overseeing the program. OXFAM America, an NGO currently campaigning on Capitol Hill to cease buying food from American farmers and end cargo preference laws for U.S. flag operators, received $78 million in revenues and spent $28 million in organizational salaries in 2011.
OXFAM's IRS report says its mission is to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice with local groups in more than 90 nations, which includes giving them cash to buy food. And the NGO says it is campaigning for social justice by participating in meaningful discussions about issues affecting indigenous peoples' families, livelihood and land. Additionally, OXFAM advocates investment in small-scale food producers and modernization of food aid programs as part of its campaign....
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2.
The End of the U.S. Merchant Marine?
By Denise Krep
March 12, 2013
The U.S. Merchant Marine fleet will be dead in ten years. Food aid lobbyists will convince Congress to eliminate the cargo preference requirements which mandate that government impelled cargo be shipped on U.S. flagged and U.S. crewed vessels. The current Administration will support these cuts to better promote its wind, solar, and nuclear energy programs. The U.S. maritime community must convince Congress and the Administration that cargo preference and the U.S. mariners who transport this cargo are vital to our national security if it is to avoid this grim prognosis.
The U.S. flag fleet's demise is starkly highlighted in Netflix's new series, "House of Cards". In the show, a Philadelphia shipyard employing over 10,000 people closes without a flicker of concern from the President or Congress. The blithe indifference to angry, unemployed shipyard workers is contrasted by the high-level concern expressed to a teacher's strike. The teacher strike is viewed as extremely volatile political damage that must be successfully resolved; the same angst does not apply to the perceived simple shipyard closure.
Sadly, real life politicians appear to be following the lead of their Netflix counterpart. Last summer, the Senate voted 74-19 and the House of Representatives voted 373-52 to cut the food aid cargo preference mandate from 75 percent to 50 percent. According to the American Maritime Officers, this middle of the night decision, put 16 ships, 640 seagoing jobs, and 2,000 jobs in related sectors at risk. These are the same crews and ships that the Department of Defense uses to transport military equipment and personnel. Congress had not held any hearings on this subject. The Administration did not oppose it. The massive maritime cuts inserted under a section titled "offsets" were viewed as a simple political decision not worthy of open, transparent discussion.....
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3. Watch Tony Munoz & Denise Krep on Maritime TV
4. Watch Clay Maitland of the Marshal Island Registry on the US Merchant Marine Debate