U.S. Senators David Vitter (R-La.) and Bill Cassidy
(R-La.) introduced the Ships to Be Recycled in the States (STORIS) Act,
legislation to reform the domestic marine recycling industry on Thursday.
Their legislation aims to improve the domestic ship
recycling industry and promote transparency by requiring reports from Maritime
Administration (MARAD) and an audit by the Government Accountability Office.
Congressman Garret Graves (R-La.) is introducing the companion legislation in
the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The Maritime Administration receives millions of
dollars in federal funding, but they’ve never reported how the sales money is
spent or how the agency awards contracts,” Vitter said. “Ship recycling is an
important part of our domestic maritime industry, and these reforms would
improve federal contracting, cut government waste, and help create jobs in
Louisiana.”
“Louisiana directly benefits from the Maritime
Administration—hundreds work in ship recycling facilities and many state
museums receive maritime grants,” said Cassidy. “There have been concerns that
the agency receives millions in federal funding but lacks transparency. The
STORIS Act will strengthen oversight over the agency and help create more jobs
for Louisiana workers.”
“Americans expect the federal government to operate
in their best interest,” said Graves. “We have found multiple instances where
the U.S. Maritime Administration has failed to maximize the return on
investment on the sale of retired federal vessels by not accepting the highest
bid on a number of contracts and not fulfilling its obligation to reinvest
these funds in our merchant mariner workforce. This bill will prevent MARAD
from leaving millions of dollars on the table in regard to ship recycling
contracts and require that we have the workforce we need to increase global
trade and exports from Louisiana.”
Current law requires all excess government vessels to
be sold to domestic marine recyclers to be dismantled. A portion of funding
from the sales goes toward the Vessel Operations Revolving Fund, federal and
state maritime academies, and the maritime heritage grant program. The STORIS
Act would make sure that the required funding goes to federal and state
maritime academies and to heritage grants funding to the Department of
Interior. It would also require MARAD to issue an annual report on how its
money is spent and publicize its ship recycling agreements.
Additionally, the STORIS Act creates jobs by ensuring
that all vessels can be dismantled in the United States in compliance with U.S.
environmental and safety laws, and are not exported where those safety rules do
not apply.
The STORIS Act is named in recognition of the former
Coast Guard Cutter Storis, which was dismantled in Mexico in 2013 in violation
of the current law.
Source: maritime-executive.
5 June 2015
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