Increased Title XI Funding Pursued In Congress

Increased Title XI Funding Pursued In Congress

Rep. Bateman, Sen. Hollings Sponsor Measures To Adequately Fund Crucial Program

      The House Oversight Panel on Merchant Marine in April authorized $50 million for the ship construction loan guarantee program in fiscal 2001.
     The amount--much higher than that proposed by the administration--was sought in a unanimous consent request by Virginia Republican Rep. Herbert Bateman, chairman of the panel in the House Armed Services Committee.
     In its fiscal 2001 spending blueprint for the Maritime Administration in the Department of Transportation, the White House requested only $6 million for the program, with only $2 million actually earmarked for new guarantees. Rep. Bateman and others had called that amount inadequate to meet current demand.
     The shipbuilding loan guarantees were authorized in Title XI of the 1936 Merchant Marine Act. The guarantees make commercial credit for cargo and cruise vessel construction in the U.S. easier to obtain and manage, and each dollar in Title XI budget authority generates $20 in private financing for shipyard projects. At the $50 million level, Title XI would cover an estimated $1.4 billion in contracts pending as of April 1.
     "This program is critical to ensuring a robust commercial shipbuilding industrial base," Rep. Bateman said of Title XI.
     Meanwhile, South Carolina Democrat Ernest Hollings introduced an identical measure in the Senate. The Hollings bill was referred to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, chaired by Arizona Republican John McCain.
     Both the Bateman and Hollings bills would provide full funding for the Maritime Security Program as requested by the President.
     MSP was authorized for 10 years in the Maritime Security Act of 1996. The program provides 47 U.S.-flag container, roll-on/roll-off, and lighter-aboard ships with $2.1 million a piece in operating assistance each year. In exchange, the ships, their crews, and all intermodal and logistics support equipment owned by participating companies are to be made available on demand to the Department of Defense for strategic sealift and other services.
     AMO represents the licensed officers on seven ships enrolled in MSP--the container vessels Maersk Texas, Maersk Tennessee, Maersk Colorado and Maersk California, all operated by Maersk Line Ltd., of Norfolk, Va., and the car carriers Faust, Fidelio, and Tanabata, all operated by American V Ships Marine Ltd. LLC, of Mineola, N.Y.

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