Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1986)

nothing has been done would be incorrect. A major naval shipbuild- ing program has been undertaken, as was indicated, and civilian man- ning of naval vessels has increased.

But what of the promised enhance- ment of the merchant fleet and the shipbuilding industry? Has suffi- cient progress been made? It has not in the view of the Congress.

As also indicated in the Message from the Chairman, Congress en- acted on October 19, 1984, Public

Law 98-525, the Department of De- fense Authorization Act, 1985, legis- lation that created a Commission on

Merchant Marine and Defense to study the problems of the maritime industry. The defined tasks of the

Commission are as follows: "The Commission shall study problems relating to transportation of cargo and personnel for national defense purposes in time of war and national emergency, the capability of the United States merchant ma- rine to meet the need for such trans- portation, and the adequacy of the shipbuilding mobilization base of the United States to meet the needs of naval and merchant ship con- struction in time of war or national emergency. Based on the results of the study, the Commission shall make such specific recommenda- tions, including recommendations for legislative actions, action by the executive branch, and action by the private sector, as the Commission considers appropriate to foster and maintain a United States merchant marine capable of meeting national security requirements. The recom- mendations of the Commission shall be provided in the reports of the

Commission due on September 30, 1985, and September 30, 1986 ..."

Following enactment of the legis- lation, the Office of Management and Budget held that no Commis- sion could be created without spe- cific funding. On August 15, 1985, the Congress provided funding for the Commission as part of the sup- plemental appropriations for Fiscal

Year 1985. Yet, five months later the Administration has failed to name Commissioners and create the

Commission.

Should it therefore be concluded that the Administration believes that it has fulfilled either the man- date of the Congress in defining the tasks to be performed by the Com- mission or that the seven-point pro- gram defined by the President in 1980 has been put in place?

As we have previously stated, the program of the Administration has been to enact the Shipping Act of 1984 as the centerpiece of maritime legislation and to continue to seek enactment of foreign building privi- leges for ship operators with operat- ing-differential subsidy contracts, the elimination of ad valorem duties levied on foreign repair of U.S.-flag vessels, and the immediate eligibili- ty of foreign-built, U.S.-flag vessels to carry preference cargoes. All leg- islation designed to provide support for the shipbuilding industry has been consistently opposed, includ- ing "Build and Charter."

Further, the implementation of the construction differential subsi- dy payback, proposed tax legislation and actions by the Department of

Agriculture to deny the applicabili- ty of certain cargo preference laws to agricultural products together show that there is no centralized review of maritime policy that re- quires the policy development be measured as to its effect on national security.

Recently, maritime industry ex- perts compiled data relating to the current status of the industry and attempted to look forward to 1990.

This was done for the U.S. liner fleet, both international and domes- tic trading; the U.S.-flag tanker fleet, both international and domes- tic trading; and the Effective U.S.

Control fleet (EUSC). In each case and particularly vessels classed as militarily useful, the fleet has con- tracted sharply in numbers of ves- sels in the period from 1980 to 1985.

For example, the total number of finer vessels was reduced from 319 in 1980 to 209 in 1985. Comparable decline has occurred in the U.S.-flag militarily useful tanker vessels, where useful vessels now include those less than 100,000 dwt. Fur- ther, more than one-half of these vessels are engaged in the carriage of crude oil (a transport that must be sustained in a national emergen- cy) and a substantial number of the vessels over 50,000 dwt are not suit- able for transport of clean products due to lack of cargo tank coatings (continued)

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June, 1986 41