SIU Pres. Michael
Sacco led a group of maritime union officials last month
in urging Congress to extend the U.S. Maritime Security
Program by an additional 20 years and expand the MSP
fleet to at least 60 vessels.
The SIU president appeared July 16 before
the House Special Oversight Panel on the Merchant
Marine, part of the Armed Services Committee. Joining
him were American Maritime Officers Pres. Michael McKay;
Mike Rodriguez, executive assistant to Maters, Mates
& Pilots Pres. Tim Brown; and Marine Engineers’
Beneficial Association Pres. Ron Davis.
Earlier during the hearing— chaired by U.S. Rep.
Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and attended by a standing-room
crowd—testimony was submitted by John Clancey, chairman
of the board of Maersk Sealand; Roy Bowman, vice
president for government affairs of APL Limited and
executive vice president of American Automar, Inc.;
Jordan Truchan, president and CEO of Patriot Holdings,
American Ship Management, and Patriot Contract Services;
Joseph T. “Jay” Keegan, president and CEO of U.S. Ship
Management, Inc.; Erik Johnsen, president of
International Shipholding Corporation; and Robert
Alario, president of Offshore Marine Service
Association.
Joining Hunter in receiving the testimony were fellow
committee members Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), Rep. Thomas
Allen (D-Maine), and Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.).
Although much of the hearing focused on U.S.
citizenship ownership and control of vessels
participating in the MSP, everyone who testified, stated
that the existing program has been successful and should
be broadened.
In opening the hearing, Hunter noted, “Although we
have some time before the current Maritime Security
Program expires, the panel wanted to get started now
with the hope that we can get something enacted well
before the current expiration date in 2005. . . . This
is the first of what I hope will be several additional
hearings relating to the Maritime Security Program.”
Enacted in 1996, the MSP was designed to enhance and
increase the role played by the commercial maritime
industry in national defense planning. As noted by the
SIU and the other maritime unions in a joint statement
submitted to the panel, the MSP requires that the
maritime security fleet be composed of “active,
militarily useful, privately owned vessels to meet
national defense and other security requirements” and
that an emergency preparedness agreement approved by the
secretary of defense must cover each vessel.
The MSP further mandates that, through the Voluntary
Intermodal Sealift Agreement (VISA) program, a company
participating in the MSP must make its intermodal
shipping services and systems, including ships, vessel
space, intermodal equipment and related management
services, available to the Department of Defense “as
required to support the emergency deployment and
sustainment of U.S. military forces.”
Sacco, presenting the joint statement, noted, “This
program is critically important to the American workers
we represent, helping to offset the higher cost of
operating commercial vessels under the United States
flag caused by the multitude of rules, regulations and
tax obligations mandated by our government for United
States-flag ships but not for their foreign competitors.
As such, the reauthorization of this program is
absolutely essential to ensure that the United States
keeps and expands its privately owned fleet of United
States-flag commercial vessels.
“It is the active, competitive, privately owned
commercial fleet that provides the shipboard jobs during
peacetime that ensures the United States will continue
to have the trained American citizen merchant mariners
available to crew the more than 150 government vessels
that provide the surge buildup at the outset of military
conflicts; and the American commercial vessels that
provide the reliable, immediate sealift sustainment
capability to support military operations overseas.”
He further stated that it is “absolutely critical”
for both the government and public to realize that
“unless merchant mariners have employment in our
industry at decent wages and benefits during times of
peace, mariners will not be available in times of war or
other international emergency. Without a strong American
commercial merchant marine, the United States will lose
the best and most cost-effective means of transporting
supplies needed by our troops overseas. Without reliable
commercial sealift, our nation cannot sustain sizeable
military forces in combat.”
Along those lines, the unions (and others who
testified) reported that the MSP has proven quite
cost-effective. No less an authority than the commander
in chief of the U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM)
in August 2001 stated that it would coast the Defense
Department more than $9 billion to replace the current
commercial sealift capacity in the MSP and an additional
$1 billion annually for the operations and maintenance
of these vessels— and that’s not including the cost of
providing and replicating the private-sector intermodal
infrastructure available through the MSP.
The unions specifically recommended that Congress and
the administration “statutorily extend” the MSP for an
additional period of at least 20 years beyond its
present expiration date of Sept. 30, 2005; expand the
MSP fleet from the present 47 vessels to at least 60;
and adjust the annual MSP payment so that it “more
accurately reflects the realities of shipping economics
under the United States flag.”
The unions concluded, “We are convinced that this
program could, with appropriate and practical changes,
serve as an even greater source of employment for
American mariners, support to an even greater degree
American military operations overseas, and better
protect U.S. economic interests from total domination by
foreign-flag vessels and crews.”
Among others’ comments supporting the MSP were the
following:
- Truchan said the MSP “is absolutely essential to
the continuing existence of the American Merchant
Marine and therefore, the national defense and
security of our nation.”
- Keegan said Congress “should not now or in the
future modify a well-entrenched policy which limits
eligibility in the MSP to American-flagged vessels,
with American crews
.”
- Johnsen stated, “In addition to our national
defense, the importance of a U.S.-flag fleet to
protect our economic interest in international
commerce is equally well-established
. It is the
U.S.-flag fleet that helps American businesses to
maintain equitable participation in international
commerce, and that fleet itself depends very heavily
on the MSP program to maintain its presence in the
foreign trade of the U.S.”
- Clancey stated, “Some may question why we need to
reauthorize the MSP now. Let me answer that question:
It is critical that we preserve the important U.S.
maritime industrial base and American jobs. Removing
any uncertainty about the extension of the MSP will be
very helpful in that regard.
- Bowman pointed out, “The critical importance of a
U.S.-flag liner fleet to national security has been a
central tenet of U.S. maritime policy for generations,
most recently reaffirmed with the passage of the
Maritime Security Act of 1996.”
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