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New Attack Upon PVSA Readied For Congress
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| Port Coalition Attempts To Revive Spirit Of S.1510 | |||
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The Cruising America Coalition, the lobbying group behind the most recent efforts to repeal the Passenger Vessel Services Act, in December announced that it will launch another campaign in the next session of Congress to open U.S. domestic passenger shipping markets to foreign interests and foreign vessels. Under the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA), the commercial transportation of passengers directly between two points in the United States is reserved for vessels that are owned, operated and crewed by American citizens and built in U.S. shipyards. U.S. companies are currently building several new passenger vessels in U.S. shipyards for service in U.S. domestic markets in compliance with U.S. cabotage, safety, labor and environmental laws. Cruising America and the financial interests that support it have repeatedly sought to create access to the U.S. domestic passenger shipping market for foreign companies and foreign vessels, which are not currently required to comply with U.S. tax, safety, labor or environmental laws. Their efforts, which have taken the form of S.803 and more recently S.1510, have been geared toward repealing or significantly altering U.S. cabotage laws, rather than meeting the requirements of the these statutes. Repeal of the PVSA would cost U.S. cruise, ferry and excursion companies operating vessels in the U.S. domestic passenger shipping trades in compliance with the cabotage law hundreds of millions of dollars invested in building vessels in U.S. shipyards, crewing them with U.S. citizens and operating them in compliance with U.S. laws. Without the PVSA, these U.S. companies would be forced to compete for domestic cruise tourism with foreign companies, such as Carnival Cruise Line, which pays no corporate income tax in the U.S. or abroad, whose ships are operated outside stringent U.S. labor, safety and environmental laws and crewed for the most part with foreign nationals who work for a fraction of the regular wages earned by U.S. citizen seafarers. These conditions would place U.S. cruise operators--whose ships are built in the U.S., crewed with U.S. citizens and operated in compliance with U.S. laws--at an extreme competitive disadvantage and would put them out of business. Yet, through past legislative efforts, Cruising America has enlisted the aid of a handful of U.S. Senators and Congressmen in attempting to roll back or repeal the PVSA. Senators Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Frank Murkowski (R-AK) introduced Cruising America's first legislation in May 1997, S.803. If passed, S.803, also known as the "U.S. Cruise Tourism Act of 1997," would have granted foreign cruise companies virtually unrestricted access to U.S. domestic passenger markets. S.803 expired after receiving one hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, as did its companion legislation in the House, H.R.248. More recently, Cruising America found a friend in Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Sen. McCain sponsored S.1510, legislation similar to S.803. S.1510 would also grant broad access for foreign interests to U.S. passenger shipping markets. The bill, if passed, would allow foreign cruise ships to operate as U.S. vessels in the PVSA trades for up to 200 days per vessel. After one hearing before Sen. McCain's committee, the bill has languished in the Senate. David O'Brien, chief lobbyist for Cruising America, touted the group's new effort as a "retooled" version of S.1510. According to O'Brien's remarks published in the 'Congressional Information Bureau', Cruising America intends to have the bill introduced in the next session of Congress. According to the 'CIB' report, "the new version has yet to be dangled in front of McCain, so his position on the revamped bill is not yet known." Cruising America is a Montana-based coalition made up of travel, tourism, port and trade associations and headed by retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral David Lauth. | |||
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