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New Reminders Of Why VPAF Is Important In Election Year |
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By MICHAEL R. McKAY | |
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In March, we were reminded of some of what's at stake in this year's Presidential and Congressional elections. The alert came from a familiar source--Rob Quartel, long the most conspicuous critic of the 1920 Jones Act, the cabotage law that holds all domestic waterborne cargoes for merchant vessels owned, built, flagged, and manned in the U.S. Quoted in Trade Winds, Quartel hinted that, while he no longer publicly works the issue, the long but futile effort to force repeal of the cabotage law is far from ended. Quartel, who served on the Federal Maritime Commission in the Bush administration, used that public post to rail against the Jones Act and other laws and programs intended to boost the U.S. merchant fleet. As a private citizen in April 1995, Quartel announced the Jones Act "Reform" Coalition and promised immediate repeal of the law for the lasting benefit of U.S. and multinational farm, energy, chemical, mining, and manufacturing conglomerates, many with direct or indirect links to foreign-flag merchant vessels. The Jones Act "Reform" Coalition claimed support and financing from such corporate powers as Procter & Gamble, DuPont, Continental Grain (now a unit of Cargill) and Louis Dreyfus Corp., the multinational oil and commodities broker and shipper. Quartel and the JARC had editorial sympathy from The Wall Street Journal and the British-owned, New York-based Journal Of Commerce. Quartel had everything--except support on Capitol Hill. Four separate Jones Act repeal bills in the House and Senate drew no more than a handful of co-sponsors, and neither advanced to committee mark-up, let alone a floor vote. Meanwhile, a bipartisan majority in the House, leaders of both parties in the Senate, and the Clinton administration remained on record in strong support of the law. In response, Quartel proposed what he alone called a compromise--repeal of the Jones Act's U.S. construction requirement in the deep-sea and Great Lakes liquid and dry bulk, livestock, and lumber trades. Filed as legislation by one Midwest Senator, the Quartel proposal was without significant support April 1. His cause in ruin, Quartel resigned as president of the JARC on July 5, 1999 to pursue an unspecified "unique personal opportunity," leaving the coalition dormant with no apparent leadership. Then, on March 8, Quartel was back in friendly territory--on the front page of The Journal Of Commerce. The article told of Quartel's current project--a freight-forwarding service on the Internet. Joining Quartel later in the new venture was Tim Sansbury, a Journal Of Commerce reporter who had covered shipping and maritime policy issues in Washington. A week later, Trade Winds, a Norwegian weekly, reported on the Quartel start-up. In a piece that ran with no by-line, Quartel said there is work "under the table" on the Jones Act issue, hinting that the law is vulnerable to amendment or repeal, especially if this year's elections go the way Quartel would like them to. The White House, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and one-third of the Senate are up for grabs in November. Of course, Quartel has been predicting the imminent demise of the Jones Act since at least 1992. He also predicted that the Maritime Security Act of 1996 would never clear Congress, and the bill passed with little opposition in a House voice vote and in a Senate roll call of 88-10. While we can't put much stock in Quartel's legislative forecasts, we can take his cryptic comment last month as an advisory against political complacency. Meanwhile, there was new rumbling on another front. Port interests and travel agent associations supporting repeal of or amendment to the Passenger Vessel Services Act--the Jones Act's cruise equivalent--were salivating over the prospect of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee or its Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine taking up the issue now that Sen. John McCain is back in town. Sen. McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Commerce panel, is the principal sponsor of S.1510, a bill that would open domestic cruise markets to foreign-built ships reflagged American and to foreign-flag vessels. Last October, the committee heard testimony on the legislation, but there has been no further consideration of it. But Veronica Sanchez, director of government relations for the Port of San Francisco and executive director of the coalition promoting PVSA repeal, told a reporter that Sen. McCain's added star power resulting from his unsuccessful but generally well received insurgent campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination could jar S.1510 out of committee and onto the Senate floor before the 106th Congress adjourns next summer or fall. Sanchez and Sen. McCain believe that permitting reflagged or foreign-flag cruise ships to operate directly between U.S. deep water ports with little or no legal obligation or regulatory restraint and no binding commitments to build cruise ships in the U.S. for domestic service under the U.S. flag would somehow encourage private investment in ocean-going U.S.-flag cruise ships. But current, credible projects launched by the Chicago-based American Classic Voyages Co. and by SeaAmerica Cruise Line of Hollywood, Fla., prove that the PVSA works as it was meant to. In all, the two separate undertakings--which represent new jobs for AMO--will lead to at least nine new American-flag cruise vessels in domestic service, beginning in 2003. Any progress made by S.1510 before the 106th Congress adjourns next summer or fall would change the investment climate that made plans by American Classic and SeaAmerica possible. It would also encourage Jones Act and PVSA opponents likely to pursue repeal in the 107th Congress, which opens next January. Which brings me back to the elections in November. Our job is to help prevent a radical change in Congressional composition, a shift that could favor cabotage critics--and the work will be a lot easier if we keep the AMO Voluntary Political Action Fund at its traditionally strong level. |
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