Senator Landrieu Defends Jones Act
The United States should strengthen a century-old law designed to protect the domestic shipping industry, rather than relax it under pressure from the energy industry, the chair of the Senate Energy Committee said on Tuesday. The 1920 Jones Act restricts the delivery of goods between U.S. ports to ships made in the United States and flying the country's flags. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said defending the law is one of her top priorities and cautioned the Obama administration not to relax the statute.
U.S. Snub on Cutter Funds Seen as Threat
The Obama administration’s failure to budget $1.6 billion for two of the Coast Guard’s flagship vessels is drawing criticism from U.S. lawmakers, who contend that the service’s missions will be threatened. The Department of Homeland Security’s proposal for the fiscal year, beginning October1, requests $683 million to fund only the sixth of eight planned National Security Cutters, made by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. The agency, which oversees the Coast Guard, didn’t seek funding for the remaining two cutters for fiscal years 2014 to 2017. The 418-foot-long cutters are needed to replace an aging fleet of vessels, many of which are more than 40 years old and expensive to maintain, according to the service.
Maritime Security Initiative Launched
United States Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced their introduction of the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act. Murray, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and Collins, Chairman of the full Senate Homeland Security Committee, co-authored the bill to improve the security of the millions of cargo containers that enter America's ports unchecked each year. Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) are original cosponsors of this legislation. The nation's current cargo security regime was built pre-9/11, with an emphasis on efficiency but not on security. At present, opportunities for terrorists to tamper with cargo exist at every step along the supply chain.
