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Committee Authorizes $50 Million For Title XI
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The House Armed Services Committee May 10 approved a bill authorizing $50 million for the Title XI ship construction loan and mortgage guarantee program in fiscal 2001. The amount had been recommended by the committee's Oversight Panel on Merchant Marine, which is chaired by Rep. Herbert Bateman (R-VA). The administration had requested only $2 million in new Title XI authority in the fiscal year, which begins next Oct. 1. Rep. Bateman and others had called that amount inadequate to meet demand for current or pending projects in U.S. shipyards. The loan guarantees-authorized in Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936-make it easier for U.S.-flag vessel operators to obtain commercial credit for ship construction, conversion, or repair in the U.S. Each dollar appropriated for Title XI generates an estimated $20 in private financing. The Armed Services Committee also accepted the recommendation of its Military Readiness Subcommittee and rejected a proposal to waive for one year the current requirement that foreign-built U.S.-flag ships operate for at least three years in U.S. registry before becoming eligible to carry U.S. government imports and exports. Under the cargo preference laws of 1904, 1954, and 1985, specific percentages of such cargoes are set aside for ships owned, built, registered and crewed in the U.S. | |||
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