A former Maritime Administration official has called on the White House to reconsider budget proposals that would effectively dismantle the agency.
Under the budget proposed by the Bush administration, management of the 10-year $1 billion Maritime Security Program (MSP) would be transferred from the Maritime Administration to the Department of Defense.
The Maritime Administration's budget would be cut by more than half under the Bush administration's fiscal 2002 spending plan, but the Maritime Security Program would be fully funded at $98 million.
Hvide Marine, Inc., has changed its company name to Seabulk International, Inc. The name of a subsidiary company has also been changed. These changes do not have any impact on American Maritime Officers' contracts or jobs with the companies.
U.S. maritime interests in April prepared to defend a time-tested shipbuilding loan guarantee program targeted for elimination by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) was joined by 61 members of Congress in urging Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Ranking Member José Serrano (D-NY) of the House Commerce, Justice, State, Appropriations Subcommittee, to allot $100 million for the Maritime Administration's Title XI Ship Loan Guarantee Program in FY '02.
Permission to drill for oil in a limited area of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is only one element of a comprehensive energy policy bill filed in the Senate, one of the measure's sponsors noted recently.
