President George W. Bush on April 16 signed into law H.R. 1559, the FY 2003 Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act, providing $78.5 billion in supplemental monies to help fund military activity and Iraqi relief and reconstruction. It also includes a provision to ensure strict enforcement of U.S. cargo preference laws.Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who initially introduced the measure (S.762) in the Senate that requires American aid be sent on U.S.-flag ships during Operation Iraqi Freedom, said, "My amendment will ensure that laws designed to protect the Merchant Marine are adhered to, except in cases of extreme emergency."
The legislation provides for U.S.-flag ships to support the military in carrying vital equipment and supplies to the Middle East region in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and later during the post-war rebuilding of that liberated country.
In addition to Landrieu, a group of bipartisan senators--Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), John Breaux (D-La.), Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)--voiced their support for the legislation, stating, "At a time when U.S.-flag ships and thousands of U.S. Merchant Mariners are carrying vital equipment and supplies to the Middle East region to support our nation's military operations, it is vitally important that we recognize the contributions of the U.S. Merchant Marine to our national security."
Under U.S. cargo preference laws, 100 percent of shipments generated by the U.S. Department of Defense, and 75 percent of all food aid cargoes generated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) are required to be shipped on U.S.-flag vessels, provided they are available at fair and reasonable rates. Fifty percent of all other AID cargo, such as reconstruction material bound for Iraq, is required to be transported on U.S.-flag ships.
The SIU joined with other U.S. maritime labor organizations and flag ship operators in forming a coalition of support for the continuation of cargo preference laws. In a letter to Sen. Ted Stevens, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the group stated, "These laws are an investment in our nation's defense. The U.S. Merchant Marine provides immense cost savings to the Defense Department. . . . It is essential that the cargo base these laws generate be maintained so that U.S.-flag vessels and their defense-ready civilian personnel remain on the sea lanes of the world--available to our military forces and always prepared and willing to serve the interests of the United States of America."
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