Page 24: of Marine News Magazine (March 2019)

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COLUMN OP/ED

The Capital Construction Fund: a valuable tool for ALL domestic vessel classes

How to make the Capital Construction Fund work for all vessel owners and operators.

By Thomas C. Escher

The Red and White Fleet is a pas- AHT coastal and inland waterways trades as CCF Program senger vessel operator on San Francisco “qualifed vessel” participants.” Cook continues, adding, bay with roots back to 1892. We make “The 2007 Act gave MARAD the authority to add U.S. cit- no secret of the fact that we want to izen shipyards and operators in the SST/AMH coastal and build new vessels with zero environ- inland waterways trades as CCF Program “qualifed vessel” mental signatures, all in an effort to in- participants. In the decade that has followed, not a single crease employment for shipyard work- U.S. citizen shipyard, and only one U.S. citizen operator ers, provide new jobs for U.S. mariners, has sought to access this CCF Program opportunity. Why?” and provide a training ground to sup- Separately, the U.S. Department of Transportation in-

Escher port the growth of the U.S. fag deep sists that it has a laser focus on “rebuilding, repairing and sea ships. That mission is, today, un- revitalizing our transportation infrastructure,” as well as its necessarily diffcult. The reasons why are easy to see. mission to preserve and defend America’s domestic ship-

Not too long ago, H. Clayton Cook, in an April 2017 building base. That’s all well and good. However, and at column in this same venue, said, “When it was passed and the very same time, there are many U.S. fag operators – signed into law during the Bush Administration, the En- specifcally those in the passenger vessel game – at an enor- ergy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was hailed as mous disadvantage because today’s interpretation of the an important and long-sought objective of the U.S. Mari- MARAD Capital Construction Program excludes these time community. The law was President Bush’s extension operators from all the benefts of this well-intentioned pro- of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) Capital Con- gram. Yes, a vessel operator can put income from opera- struction Fund (CCF) program to container and Roll-on/ tions into Schedule A “Agreement Vessel” income. But we

Roll-off (RO/RO) services in projects in the U.S.” will not have a Schedule B “Qualifed Vessel,” as MARAD “The act (Merchant Marine Act of 1970) also authorized will not approve a “pure passenger service,” so there is no

MARAD to add U.S. shipyards and operators in the SST/ way to order a vessel utilizing the CCF without a penalty.

Credit: Red and White Fleet

March 2019 24 MN