[House Hearing, 110 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] MARINER EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE ======================================================================= (110-79) HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ OCTOBER 17, 2007 __________ Printed for the use of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 38-515 PDF WASHINGTON DC: 2008 --------------------------------------------------------------------- For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866)512-1800 DC area (202)512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE JAMES L. OBERSTAR, Minnesota, Chairman NICK J. RAHALL, II, West Virginia, JOHN L. MICA, Florida Vice Chair DON YOUNG, Alaska PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon THOMAS E. PETRI, Wisconsin JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee Columbia WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland JERROLD NADLER, New York VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan CORRINE BROWN, Florida STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio BOB FILNER, California RICHARD H. BAKER, Louisiana EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey GENE TAYLOR, Mississippi JERRY MORAN, Kansas ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland GARY G. MILLER, California ELLEN O. TAUSCHER, California ROBIN HAYES, North Carolina LEONARD L. BOSWELL, Iowa HENRY E. BROWN, Jr., South TIM HOLDEN, Pennsylvania Carolina BRIAN BAIRD, Washington TIMOTHY V. JOHNSON, Illinois RICK LARSEN, Washington TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts SAM GRAVES, Missouri JULIA CARSON, Indiana BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania TIMOTHY H. BISHOP, New York JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West BRIAN HIGGINS, New York Virginia RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri JIM GERLACH, Pennsylvania JOHN T. SALAZAR, Colorado MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois TED POE, Texas DORIS O. MATSUI, California DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington NICK LAMPSON, Texas CONNIE MACK, Florida ZACHARY T. SPACE, Ohio JOHN R. `RANDY' KUHL, Jr., New MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii York BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa LYNN A WESTMORELAND, Georgia JASON ALTMIRE, Pennsylvania CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, Jr., TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota Louisiana HEATH SHULER, North Carolina JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio MICHAEL A. ACURI, New York CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona THELMA D. DRAKE, Virginia CHRISTOPHER P. CARNEY, Pennsylvania MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma JOHN J. HALL, New York VERN BUCHANAN, Florida STEVE KAGEN, Wisconsin STEVE COHEN, Tennessee JERRY McNERNEY, California LAURA A. RICHARDSON, California (ii) SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland, Chairman GENE TAYLOR, Mississippi STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio RICK LARSEN, Washington DON YOUNG, Alaska CORRINE BROWN, Florida HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina BRIAN HIGGINS, New York WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland BRIAN BAIRD, Washington FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey TIMOTHY H. BISHOP, New York, Vice TED POE, Texas Chair JOHN L. MICA, Florida VACANCY (Ex Officio) JAMES L. OBERSTAR, Minnesota (Ex Officio) (iii) CONTENTS Page Summary of Subject Matter........................................ vi TESTIMONY Annessa, Carl, COO/Vice President for Operations, Hornbeck Offshore Services for Offshore Marine Service Association...... 29 Beacom, Captain William, Navigation Consultant, Professional Mariner........................................................ 29 Connaughton, Sean, Administrator, MARAD.......................... 6 Craine, Jr., Admiral John, Jr. USN, Retired, President, S.U.N.Y. Maritime College............................................... 29 Eriksson, Berit, Former Executive Director, Pacific Coast Maritime Consortium............................................ 44 Hammond, Cathy, CEO, Inland Marine Service for American Waterway Operators...................................................... 29 Rodriguez, Michael, Executive Assistant to the President, Masters, Mates and Pilots...................................... 29 Slesinger, Captain Jeff, Western Towboat Company, Chairperson, Committee on Strategic Planning, Pacific Marine Towing Industry Partners....................................................... 44 Sulzer, Captain Arthur H., USN, Retired, Board Member, Maritime Academy Charter High School.................................... 44 Tellez, Augustin, Executive Vice President, Seafarers International Union............................................ 44 Whitehead, Rear Admiral Joel, U.S. Coast Guard................... 6 PREPARED STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Bishop, Hon. Timothy H., of New York............................. 56 Cummings, Hon. Elijah E., of Maryland............................ 57 Oberstar, Hon. James L., of Minnesota............................ 63 PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED BY WITNESSES Annessa, Carl.................................................... 66 Beacom, Capt. William............................................ 74 Connaughton, Sean T.............................................. 76 Craine, Jr., Admiral John W...................................... 86 Eriksson, Berit.................................................. 95 Hammond, Cathy................................................... 120 Rodriguez, Michael J............................................. 135 Slesinger, Capt. Jeff............................................ 143 Sulzer, Capt. Arthur H........................................... 152 Tellez, Augustin................................................. 166 Whitehead, Rear Admiral Joel..................................... 174 SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD Whitehead, Rear Admiral Joel, U.S. Coast Guard, response to question from Rep. Taylor...................................... 21 ADDITIONS TO THE RECORD Seamen's Church Institute, Eric K. Larsson, Director of Maritime Training and Education, written statement...................... 187 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.009 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.011 HEARING ON MARINER EDUCATION AND THE WORK FORCE ---------- Wednesday, October 17, 2007 House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 2165, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Elijah E. Cummings [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. Mr. Cummings. The Subcommittee will come to order. Before we begin, I ask unanimous consent that Congresswoman Laura Richardson may sit with the Subcommittee and participate in this hearing, and without objection, it is so ordered. I am hopeful that she will be joining us shortly, and I will say a little bit more about her at that time. Today, our Subcommittee convenes to consider two inter- related topics that are of great importance to the future success of the maritime industry. Specifically, we will examine the nature, causes, and forecasts of labor shortages in the industry, and we will examine trends and innovations in maritime innovation. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, ports are the gateways through which 80 percent of our Nation's foreign trade enters our Country. Commerce in our Nation's maritime sector accounts for approximately $750 billion of U.S. gross domestic product. Waterborne trade, which totaled 2.3 billion metric tons in 2005, is increasing at a startling rate, and the growth in imported cargo, combined with our own domestic production, is creating freight volumes that are straining our transportation networks. At the same time, significant changes continue to transform the experience of working in the maritime industry. No longer is the sailor's life necessarily one of adventure, offering a young person the chance both to learn about sailing through on-the-job experiences at sea while occasionally spending weeks exploring port cities around the world. Deadlines and cost margins are tight and ships sail with the fewest possible number of crew members, who are expected to fulfill multiple duties while keeping regular watches, and who usually spend no more than a few hours in any port. The significant changes occurring in the maritime industry appear to be contributing to labor shortages that, in turn, threaten to further strain the industry. The nature and extent of the shortages is not well quantified and they appear to vary by type of mariner and type of vessel. An important part of our job today is to understand these shortages and to project their potential impact on the various segments of the U.S. maritime industry. Based on data the United States Maritime Administration has provided, however, we know that the average age of a mariner with a Masters license is 51, while the average age of a Chief Engineer is 50. Figures also suggest that nearly 30 percent of inland mariners will be eligible to retire in the near future. There are likely many factors that can contribute to a labor shortage in the maritime industry, and just as the extent of the shortages is not known, the impact of each factor is difficult to assess. Certainly, the lifestyle associated with the maritime industry presents unique challenges. While the lure of the sea has been a siren song to many throughout the ages, many people are also lured by the call of home, and they may prefer to relax with their families at the end of the day rather than retire to a small cabin at the end of a hard shift. Wage differentials between jobs at sea and jobs on land may contribute to shortages, particularly when combined with the lifestyle challenges of life on the water. Further, significant new standards for training and continuing education have been applied to mariners through the 1995 amendments to the Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping. These standards serve the critical goal of improving safety in the maritime industry and reducing human factors as the causes of maritime accidents, but they have also had the effect of imposing expensive and time-consuming training requirements on mariners, particularly on unlicensed mariners seeking to climb their way up the hawsepipe to command a ship. There are certainly outstanding facilities in the United States that help train individuals to enter the maritime industry and to advance in their careers, such as the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training in Piney Point, Maryland, run by the Seafarers International Union, which I have had the honor of visiting, and the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies associated with the Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union, which I have also had the honor of visiting. However, attendance at such facilities can be expensive and require a significant commitment of time that maritime schedules may not allow a mariner to easily make. Further, we need to assess whether current maritime education programs have the capacity to meet the demand of those who are just now entering the maritime industry. In short, our hearing today is intended to enable us to draw a comprehensive picture of the personnel situation of the U.S. maritime industry. Our examination will inform the future development of policies needed to ensure that our Nation has the labor we need to keep maritime commerce flowing and to ensure that those contemplating working on the water will have the chance to advance along a career path that brings them new opportunities. Before I recognize the Ranking Member, I also want to discuss for one moment a trend in maritime education that is of significance to me, and that is the growth or, I might say, re- growth of maritime-themed high schools across the Nation. In his written testimony, Captain Art Sulzer, who will appear on our third panel, has presented a very comprehensive discussion of the past history of high school-level maritime education as well as the successes of and challenges faced by new maritime-themed high schools being created today. Shortly after becoming Chair of this Subcommittee, I learned that my own city of Baltimore had established a maritime-themed high school some five or six years ago. After visiting the school, I learned that it had been achieving impressive test results and graduation rates, but the school system had not made the investments necessary to ensure that the school was truly offering a maritime education and could prepare students for work in the maritime industry. Over the past summer, I have been working closely with a very dedicated group of individuals from the Baltimore maritime community, including former Congresswoman Helen Bentley, to ensure that the promise inherent in the school's name, Maritime Industries Academy, was fulfilled and that students could receive a maritime education that would be meaningful. We have succeeded in revitalizing the school's Junior Naval ROTC program and have introduced a guest lecture series to bring the maritime community into the school. We are poised to achieve even greater results with the creation of a new advisory board that will guide the school through the process of applying for a charter, which will hopefully give the school the flexibility it needs to support an expansive maritime curriculum. I want to briefly acknowledge the significant contributions that many of those who are joining us today are making to the development of this project, including Administrator Connaughton and his staff members, Sharon LeGrand, Shannon Russell, and Richard Corley, who continue to bring the resources of the Federal Government to support this school. MARAD also put us in touch with Captain Sulzer, who has been a key advisor. I also want to pay special tribute to Dick Fredericks for his hard work. I also thank Mr. Mike Rodriguez, Walt Megonigal, and the Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union and its MITAGS institution; Augustin Tellez and the Seafarers International Union; and Admiral Craine, the President of the New York Maritime Academy, which is creating a new partnership for maritime high schools in which I look forward to having Baltimore Maritime Industries Academy participate. Every time I visit the school, whose advancement has become a top priority for me, I see first-hand the challenges, but I also see the possibilities of maritime education and I gain a new kind of insight into the maritime industry that I frankly have not received from any other source. My experience with this school also makes the subject of today's hearing very personal to me. I am truly hopeful that school districts around the Country can benefit from the lessons that those who are testifying today are learning regarding how best to support the development of maritime schools and open such schools in their local communities. I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses, and now I yield to our distinguished Ranking Member, Congressman LaTourette. Mr. LaTourette. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the recognition. I have to apologize this morning for being a little bleary eyed. It took longer for the Cleveland Indians to dispatch the Boston Red Sox than I had hoped last night. [Laughter.] Mr. LaTourette. This morning, the Subcommittee will hear from several witnesses on the state of the maritime workforce and the recommendations for enhancements and initiatives to attract and retain workers in the maritime trades. Our Nation's economy depends on a well trained and skilled maritime workforce, and I look forward to hearing the witnesses' suggestions. Earlier this year, I introduced H.R. 1605, which was titled the Merchant Mariner Credentials Improvement Act of 2007. I am very grateful to you, Chairman Cummings, and also to Chairman Oberstar, for including this bill as a part of the larger Coast Guard authorization bill, and I look forward to working with both of you to enact those provisions in the law. These provisions include common sense changes to the Coast Guard's documentation and licensing processes. The bill would authorize maritime workers to renew their documents and licenses before their existing credentials expire, allow the Coast Guard to temporarily extend the validity of credentials, and reduce the number of times that maritime workers would be required to appear in person and be finger-printed for Federal documents. The bill also would allow newly hired workers to start working in an interim clearance status before they receive the transportation worker identification card. Lastly, the bill recognizes the impacts that a shortage in the number of merchant mariners would have on the U.S. fleet, our economy, and our national security. I look forward to hearing the thoughts of our witnesses on all of the panels today on how such a shortage can be prevented. Again, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this important hearing, and I thank the witnesses in advance for their testimony, and yield back. Mr. Cummings. Mr. Baird. Mr. Baird. I thank the Chairman for holding this meeting. The problem you are addressing today is part of a problem throughout the transportation industry, and I will just make a brief plug. Phil English and I have created a caucus called the Career and Technical Education Caucus to address precisely these concerns. And though I am a former university professor, back home I hear more requests for people who can drive diesel trucks, repair diesel engines, hang drywall, fix electrical wiring, etc., than I hear for liberal arts majors. Nothing against the liberal arts majors in the crowd, including myself, but we need to do a lot more for career and tech ed in this Country. We have a paradox of people worried about jobs being exported overseas. Even as employers today, with high-paying jobs, can't find skilled workers to fill those jobs. So I would hope that this is the first of a series, perhaps, of hearings we have on this issue of the need for a skilled workforce. Finally, I would urge Members on both sides, when we talk about the importance of making a college education more affordable, to add the words career and technical education, because there are well-paying, decent jobs that people can put food on their table for their families and serve this Country quite well, and we need to give career and tech ed every bit as much status as we give to college education. I yield back. Thank you. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Baird. Mr. Coble. Mr. Coble. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very brief opening statement. Good to have you all with us this morning, gentlemen, Admiral. An issue I want to determine, and I think will be addressed today, Mr. Chairman, is whether or not the Federal Government has a responsibility to provide training or to ensure the availability of training for mariners working in the private sector. I suspect that will be addressed by one or both of our witnesses, and I thank you for having the hearing, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Mr. Bishop. Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing. In the interest of time, I will submit my opening statement for the record. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Bishop. Mr. Gilchrest. Mr. Gilchrest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of brief remarks, buttressing what previous Members have said about the need for engineers down to dock workers in the maritime industry. By the year 2020, I understand the volume of cargo is going to double, the number of vessels will double, but the number of ports will probably diminish; and the concentration of that cargo going into those ports is going to require the best kind of intellect that the engineers, the dock workers, and we have to offer. I would hope that during the course--and there is no question that education in the whole range of the maritime industry is necessary and we need to put our best people into that and our best efforts, and back it up with dollars to make those opportunities possible, because they are essential and the American public utterly depends on the maritime industry for virtually everything they purchase at our stores. As we go through this, though, this that we are describing today is human activity, and it is human activity impacting, more than likely, in a degrading fashion, on very limited resources, that is, the environment; and the ecology, the environment upon which we ultimately depend, is only now as resilient as our understanding of that ecology is. So as we go through the fact that we need technical schooling, we need engineers, all the way down to dock workers, every one of those individuals needs to also understand their place, the impact this industry has on those vital natural resources. So human activity is important in this maritime industry, but it also needs to be and can be compatible with nature's design. I represent the Chesapeake Bay, and we are also discussing, and more often than not disputing, where dredging needs to take place, where a whole range of other activities concerning ballast water, invasive species, all of these things need to take place. We now know enough information so we don't have to sacrifice the Chesapeake Bay so people in Missouri and Minnesota and Colorado and Maryland can have the goods they need to purchase to improve the quality of their life. So as we go through this process, an understanding of where we fit in nature's design will certainly benefit our posterity. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Gilchrest. Mr. Poe. Mr. Poe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am concerned about how we got in this situation. If we know how we got in this situation, maybe we can rectify it and not continue to be, in my opinion, a dire situation. Also, has the Federal Government, with its regulations, made this worse or is it making it better? I would like some candid answers on the role of the Federal Government; does it get in the way or does it help. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back. Thank you. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. That being the end of the opening statements, we will now hear from Admiral Joel Whitehead, Commander of the Coast Guard's Eighth District, and Mr. Sean Connaughton, Administrator of the United States Maritime Administration. Thank you, gentlemen, for being with us. You will have five minutes to provide a summary of your testimony and then we will have some questions. TESTIMONY OF REAR ADMIRAL JOEL WHITEHEAD, U.S. COAST GUARD; SEAN CONNAUGHTON, ADMINISTRATOR, MARAD Admiral Whitehead. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. I am Admiral Joel Whitehead, Commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District in New Orleans. The Eighth Coast Guard District is the largest of nine Coast Guard districts and covers 26 States, more than 1200 miles of coastline, and 10,300 miles of inland waterways from Florida to Mexico and including the entire navigable lengths of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee River systems. I am pleased to have this opportunity to be with you today and to discuss the Coast Guard's role in maritime education and workforce. The Coast Guard sets standards of training and qualification for seafarers and administers the Mariner Licensing and Documentation program in compliance with domestic and international laws. The aim of the Mariner Licensing and Documentation program is to ensure that the U.S. merchant marine vessels are manned by qualified, trained, and competent personnel. In 1978, the International Maritime Organization adopted the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers Convention of 1978. The U.S. deferred ratification efforts and worked for over a decade to make the necessary changes to our licensing regulations to comply with the Convention. The U.S. became party to the STCW Convention in 1991. The STCW Convention was significantly amended in 1995. The amendments were comprehensive and detailed, resulting in more consistent training worldwide. Competence-based standards were established that placed emphasis on the requirements for training and assessment of skills in almost every facet of a mariner's profession. To meet our Convention obligations, the Coast Guard published an interim rule on June 26th, 1997, implementing the 1995 amendments. The rule retained the existing licensing structure in the United States; it incorporated the STCW training and practical demonstrations of skill requirements, and included oversight of the training. This rule impacted mariners serving on commercial seagoing vessels of over 200 gross registered tons, whether operating on domestic or international voyages, and resulted in increased training costs to the mariners. Mariners serving on seagoing vessels of less than 200 gross registered tons on domestic voyages and mariners serving on non-seagoing vessels, such as inland towing vessels, were not impacted by the rule. The Coast Guard is currently reviewing the 1997 interim rule and is considering seeking additional comments to ensure that we continue to meet our obligations under the Convention. The review is necessary to incorporate lessons learned during the 10-year implementation period, to clarify issues that generated confusion to mariners, to address the comments on the interim rule, and to address recommendations from the 2003 independent evaluation of the credentialing and licensing program. In January of 2007, the IMO began a comprehensive review of the STCW Convention that will take several years to complete. The review is restricted to a limited number of issues to avoid any unnecessary amendments or reduction of the very successful training regime and subsequent impact to industry. The comprehensive review presents an opportunity to look for alternative training approaches not considered during the 1995 amendments that may help alleviate the burdens imposed by the implementation of STCW. The Coast Guard has engaged the Department of Homeland Security's Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee, or MERPAC, to provide recommendations on the issues to assist in the development of the positions for the United States. The Coast Guard has also partnered with MARAD to oversee and evaluate the implementation of STCW by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and the six State maritime academies. Furthermore, the Coast Guard has supported and fostered discussions on mariner recruitment and retention to address training related issues that would contribute to the shortage of qualified U.S. mariners. The Coast Guard believes that the STCW has significantly enhanced the safety and security of the United States by requiring foreign vessels calling on our waters to be manned with competent crews. The Coast Guard does recognize that implementing the requirements of the STCW Convention for U.S. seagoing vessels has imposed a financial burden on our mariners, and we continue to examine methods that may potentially reduce some of the challenges associated with the implementation of the STCW requirements. The Coast Guard is also undergoing several initiatives that aim to positively impact industry, and for the past 12 months the Coast Guard has been proceeding with its project to restructure and centralize the mariner licensing and documentation program. Since June, the National Maritime Center has been focused on improving its internal customer services processes to issue mariner licenses and documents faster and with a higher degree of accuracy and consistency. In August, as a result of the process improvements, the NMC reduced the inventory of credential applications being processed by 39 percent and issued over 2,000 mariner credentials, reaching a new production record. While the overall processing time remains higher than desired, the average license renewal processing time has decreased by 25 percent since June. I thank you for this opportunity to discuss maritime education and workforce, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Chairman, Mr. LaTourette, Members of the Subcommittee, it is a great pleasure for me to be here today to talk to you about some of the challenges that we are facing, but also some of the great opportunities that people have if they enter into the maritime industry and what a great career it is. Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement I would like to enter into the record and summarize my remarks, sir. Mr. Cummings. So ordered. Mr. Connaughton. As you mentioned, sir, we are facing some challenges today, primarily due to, first, the strength of the American economy, the fact that we are seeing enormous recapitalization in the maritime industry, particularly in the brown-water fleet, the offshore industry, and the coastwise fleets. These have obviously meant that we are seeing a greater demand for waterborne transportation and also the people that man the vessels. But, in addition, we also are facing some challenges when you look at the actual personnel themselves. First is retirements; the second is that many people are not necessarily perceiving maritime industry as a career; regulatory hurdles; and other types of concerns, particularly in the criminalization of certain types of acts of accidents have made going to sea or going and working in the maritime industry less attractive than it was in the past. In addition, we are also seeing an enormous challenge internationally with the shortage of mariners practically around the world. In fact, we are looking at most of the industry very actively recruiting mariners of every different nationality, and we are seeing that actually in the United States with foreign companies coming to the United States and actively recruiting American mariners. The Maritime Administration runs several programs that this Committee oversees regarding the training of mariners. The most prominent is the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, which is part of our Administration. We currently have around 1,000 cadets and graduate a little over 200 every year. Also, we are very much involved in the education and the programs of the State maritime colleges; we provide the training ships as well as direct payments to the schools and individuals through the student incentive payment program. We do provide some post-graduate types of training through the Merchant Marine Academy's GMAT School. But, obviously, for the most part, these programs have been very much focused on the deep sea mariner and not necessarily the different types of challenges that we are facing today in the United States, particularly in the brown-water industry and the offshore industry. What we have been trying to do, sir, is since these--I have been in office just about a year, and, traveling quite a bit, I have started hearing, anecdotally, many of these concerns being raised by employers and mariners about some of the challenges they are facing. One of the first things that we are trying to do is get out a survey to the industry to actually get some data behind some of this anecdotal information. We are nearing the final stages in getting that approved and out to the industry. Also, we have actually upgraded what we call the mariner outreach system, which allows mariners to actually come in and file with us so we can keep track of what is happening, particularly in the offshore and the deep sea industry. Right now, we have around 41,000 mariners who have signed up for that program. We are reaching out to many of the industry associations and labor management, labor organizations, to work with them and get a better handle about what is happening in the industry. We are trying to find expanded opportunities with the Department of Labor. We have been working with them initially with the shipyard industry, because, obviously, in this recapitalization that we are experiencing in the industry, they are having the same types of challenges, finding and keeping shipyard workers; and we have actually been able to take some initial steps in setting up some nationwide programs to help the shipyard industry, and now we are trying to explore whether we can take that and potentially deal with it and bring it out to the mariner community as well. One of the things that we continually find some challenges with is finding training opportunities for our cadets at the Merchant Marine Academy and also at the State maritime schools, so we have been reaching out to the broader maritime community to see if we can get more cadet berths. I am happy to report that we have had the first agreement signed just this week with an Overseas Shipholding Group, which will potentially open up at least 100 more ships to mariners, primary in the foreign flag, but it is an American company. We also have some other American companies which have sizeable fleets who have indicated that they are willing to take American cadets onboard so we can start to get more people trained, because one of the challenges that we are facing is that one of the biggest limitations for the expansion of the enrollment in many of the State maritime schools is the fact that we have training ships for them, but they are limited in their capacity, and because we can't expand the capacity of those vessels, necessarily, we have to look for some of these other opportunities if we want to actually get more people going to the schools and graduating with licenses. In addition, the cadets, graduates from the Merchant Marine Academy and those students from the State maritime schools who actually take the student incentive payments from us have a certain obligation that is in the law. Part of that obligation is obviously to keep their license for six years and go to sea. What I have done is change the obligation to allow the service in the brown-water inland industry to meet that obligation, so that students know that, once they graduate, they can actually go to work in the inland industry and then meet the obligations that they incurred. Also what we are working very diligently on is, as you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, working with some of these high schools programs, because we think that one of the things is making our youth aware of the maritime industry and the opportunities that exist and the career that now exists in the industry. If we can get to them early, get them those skills, get them that familiarization, that will hopefully make them more interested in going to sea and going to work in the maritime industry. So we are trying to get to them as early as possible. In our recent realignment of the maritime industry, we actually did establish an office that is completely dedicated to workforce development. Sharon LeGrand, who you mentioned, is actually part of that office, and that office's whole purpose is really to work on some of these program and policy issues and do much more outreach so we can end up, again, getting a much more consistent approach on how we go after some of these workforce development issues. We are also working very diligently to revise our own regulations. These regulations that we have today that govern the State schools, govern the Merchant Marine Academy, our training programs, is well over 20 years old. The challenges that those regulations were originally developed in are not the challenges we are facing today, so we will hopefully be coming out with some revised regulations early next year. So, Mr. Chairman, these are some great challenges, but incredible opportunities. Particularly, I just want to leave one thought, an act that this Subcommittee took a few years ago. The Committee came forward with some revisions to the Deepwater Port Act. Those changes allowed us to broach the subject of taking American mariners and American flagged vessels in this growing LNG trade. I am very happy to report that we now have commitments from two companies to start to take onboard American mariners onboard the LNG vessels calling in the United States. We have a commitment from another company, Woodside Natural Gas, to actually have two American flagged LNGs if their deepwater port license is approved, and we believe we will shortly be announcing another company's commitment to have an American flagged LNG as well. So, again, some great opportunities that are there for us if we are willing to try to go out and take it. So it is a great pleasure for me to be here. Again, we have got challenges, but we have got some great opportunities for the men and women who are in the maritime industry that can have a great career ahead. Thank you, sir. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Connaughton. A little bit earlier in the hearing I had asked unanimous consent that Congresswoman Laura Richardson sit with our Subcommittee to participate in this hearing and it was ordered. She is with us now, and in the way of introduction, Congresswoman Richardson has been elected to represent the 37th District of California, formerly represented by our distinguished colleague, Ms. Juanita Millender-McDonald, who was a dedicated Member of the Transportation Committee and of this Subcommittee. While Ms. Richardson has been assigned to the Transportation Committee, her Subcommittee assignments have not yet been announced, but we eagerly anticipate she will serve on our Subcommittee, and we welcome her to her first hearing with us today. Ms. Richardson's district includes the Alameda Corridor, which provides transportation to and from the Port of Long Beach, one of our most vital ports, and she has previously worked on transportation issues both as a member of the California Assembly and the Long Beach City Council. I know she understands from the unique position of her district the transportation challenges we confront as a Nation, and she shares our Subcommittee's concern to ensure that our Nation's maritime industry is as strong as it can be. So, to Ms. Richardson, we welcome you, and I will yield to you for a response. Ms. Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate that very kind welcome by both yourself and the Committee. You know, it was kind of interesting when I went back to school and got my master's in business, I had an opportunity to choose to go overseas and study goods movement and trade in China, so I have been both to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing, and have had an opportunity to see their tremendous growth, which also impacts how we move forward in this Nation. As was stated by the Chairman, coming from the 37th Congressional District, I noted in the background that we expect an increase doubling of our cargo over the next five years, and it states that the majority of that will be in very concentrated areas. And I guess I should say either congratulations or challenges to me, because I happen to represent 45 percent of the entire Nation's cargo goes through my district. So we will be gladly working with this Committee to carry, I think, really, something that is going to be good for this Country if we do it wisely, and I look forward to future legislation that we will enact to enable that the maritime industry is very successful. With that, Mr. Chairman, count on me, and I hope to make you very proud, and my other colleagues, by my representation. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Now to the five minute questioning. Mr. Connaughton, you talked about the survey of U.S. vessels operating in the industry and you mentioned in your testimony it would be completed fairly soon, I think you said, that it was in its final stages. As I am sure you are well aware, this Committee deals with timetables and deadlines because we are concerned that if we don't do that, nothing gets done. So we want to make sure you give us a timetable so we can hold you to that. What is it? Mr. Connaughton. Well---- Mr. Cummings. I am not trying to put you on the spot, but-- -- [Laughter.] Mr. Cummings.--but I am very serious about that. We have one life to live--this is no dress rehearsal--and we try to get things done. So we don't want to be here 10 years from now talking about the survey, when you are off to another job. Mr. Connaughton. Well, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the question because I thought we--well, there is a process that we must follow, as a government agency, to go out and request any information from the public and from business. We have been working very diligently to get that survey through that process. We initially had to publish in the Federal Register a notice that we were going to do the survey. We have gotten that through the system. We are now down to the point of where we have had now to get the actual questions cleared through the system, and it is our hope that that process will be completed in the next several weeks. Our goal was to get it out much sooner than this; it is just that the system is the system. So I would like to tell you that we would--our goal is to have it out by December 1st. Mr. Cummings. All right. Mr. Connaughton. And we will keep you very much informed, sir, of what the status is. Mr. Cummings. And we will be talking on the last day of November. Mr. Connaughton. Yes, sir. [Laughter.] Mr. Cummings. Let me ask you this. Let me go to something that you said that I found very interesting, when you talked about high schools. There are only a few maritime high schools in our Country, and it concerns many Members of Congress that we have so many young people who don't even know, don't have a clue, about the jobs in the maritime industry. I think one of my colleagues said it a few minutes ago, where people can get a job and make sufficient funds to support their families and, sadly, I think we don't start young enough. In other words, we don't expose them early enough. And I am just wondering, considering there are only a few high schools now, do you have any goals to try to reach out to various school districts? You know, the trend in the Nation today is to have these specialized high schools. In Baltimore, they have got them for homeland security, they have got them for firefighters, all kinds of different things, technology, and I am just wondering what are we doing, considering the fact that this is an industry--and I have read your testimony, which was well done, by the way, and it talks about the needs and projects the needs. But I am just wondering, at the end of your tenure, do you have a goal of addressing that issue, and to what extent, under your watch? Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Chairman, it is amazing to me to see where we are today with regard to demand and the interest in mariners, in American mariners. One of the things, as I have gone around the Country, I have had the opportunity to meet with people in New Orleans, Charleston, our folks have met with yours in Baltimore, as well as up in New York about the interest in starting up some of these programs. There are already some of these high school programs. The issue is how do we come up with potentially a model curriculum to get some of these programs, which still use or say that they are maritime, that are not necessarily in that direction any more, even though they may use that title. It is now the fact that we can point to them that they have a career and they have opportunities. Here we are, just three or four months after the graduations from all the State schools, Kings Point, and we are looking at 85 percent of the graduates afloat or in the military, and another 12 to 13 percent with some significant short-side jobs; and the salaries are just simply tremendous. I mean, what we are looking at is, anecdotally, everything from $50,000 to over $100,000 are being earned by these graduates, and the demand is there and the salaries are there, and trying to reach out to America's youth, which just Mr. Baird, I think, mentioned about how difficult is in technical--I know my previous position was in local government, and we had a very difficult time, even though you could show that bricklayers, electricians were graduating at 18, 19 years old from our technical schools, making $60,000 a year in this area, and we had to close the programs down because many parents don't recognize that as a viable career. We have to do the same thing. I know that it is a problem. I think a challenge for all of us is to make people understand that 95 percent of the Nation's trade and cargo comes by water, is transported by water, and that this is--especially with the growth in trade, as Mr. Coble and Mr. Gilchrest mentioned, it is going to continue to grow. We are going to become more dependent on our maritime highways and this is a career path that has unlimited potential. Mr. Cummings. Mr. Connaughton, you didn't answer my question. Let me restate it. I want you to tell me that by the end of your tenure you have certain objectives with regard to our high schools. Do you or don't you? You can just say that, yes or no, and then I can go a little further. In other words, we have a limited time to act, and you have been blessed to be placed in this position. I am glad to know you have local government experience. What I am trying to get to is I would like for you, if you agree with me, to make that one of your top priorities, to try to establish more of these high schools. And I agree, with the content, they have got to be, content-wise, what we need. The school in Baltimore, to be frank with you, when they created the school, they did not give it the content that they needed, and that is what we are doing now. But these young people are eager. They are so excited about this school, and it is in the inner city of Baltimore and, basically, we anticipate that, in a year, people will be knocking down the doors trying to get into this school. And I believe there are a lot of youngsters all over our Country that, if they only knew--and if the parents; we have got to educate parents, you are absolutely right. But I am asking you are you committed to trying to do that under your watch. Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Chairman, very much so within the constraints of the resources I have. Mr. Cummings. I understand. Mr. Connaughton.. I have entirely five people dedicated to all the manpower issues across this industry and we have one person that I have essentially focused on these high school programs, and the goal there is to develop a model curriculum that we can then share with school districts, starting with yours, but then sharing with school districts around the Country. But the thing is that, again, that is a priority, but within the fact that we are a very small agency and obviously we have had many funding issues in the past and we are down to just the four or five people that I have now pulled in and created this office to deal with these types of issues. Mr. Cummings. Well, we want to see if we can't perhaps help you get more funding, perhaps in the future, so that you can carry that out. Last, but not least, let me ask you this. Does the Maritime Administration have an advertising budget? If our goal is to reach out to non-coastal areas, in addition to reaching areas that are on the water, is it possible for MARAD to develop an advertising campaign to make people aware of the maritime industry and let them know that they are needed? Mr. Connaughton. We have no funds, sir, none at all. Mr. Cummings. So we have got this great need, but we have no way of letting people know. Mr. Connaughton. I think I have two or three people in my public affairs shop and, for the most part, they are reporting things that are happening in the press versus being out there. Mr. Cummings. Well, we want to work with you on that. I see my time is up. Mr. LaTourette? Mr. LaTourette. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Admiral, in your oral statement, and I think in your written statement, you indicated that the Coast Guard is cognizant of the fact that some of the new training requirements under STCW and maybe TWIC, as well, are causing an additional financial burden on mariners. I made a note; I thought you said that the Coast Guard is examining that. Can you sort of describe the examination and then tell me whether or not the Federal Government, to your knowledge, has ever participated in providing funds to mariners for these additional training requirements and if you are authorized to do so? Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. We are very aware that the cost to mariners associated with the STCW Convention requirements are costly, particularly for those that are at the more senior levels, the Masters, the Chief Engineers. Those costs can be very much, they can exceed $20,000 for a full round of STCW training requirements. So we are aware that it is very costly. We are looking into and working with a variety of industry training schools into ways that we can bring training in approved training courses through different means that would be much less costly, perhaps. For example, we are looking into computer-assisted training, long-distance training, things that actually, in the United States Coast Guard, we are beginning to use for our own personnel. We are trying to involve those training entities out there to begin to use those sorts of things. The Coast Guard, to my knowledge, does not have any funding directly associated with that, though there was a history of, at one period, of some grants that I believe were provided to MARAD at one point for training, but at this point we don't have funds for that. Mr. LaTourette. Two points on that. I understand you don't have the funds. Do you think, if you had the funds, you would be authorized to make that funding available? Admiral Whitehead. I am not aware, sir, that we have a legislative authority for using such funds. We certainly get involved in many issues, particularly at the local sector level, where there are industry days, for example, and we will send Coast Guard personnel out to industry days and to assist. We recently did one in Greenville, Mississippi that was recently sponsored, which was very beneficial; MARAD was there as well, I believe. And I think this is opening up, in many ways, to people in the heartland of the Country and inner cities, if it can be done right, the availability and the real jobs that are out there. Mr. LaTourette. Maybe that is something, Mr. Chairman, we can look at as we move forward with our authorization. Administrator Connaughton, you mentioned the LNG trade, and we have had a number of hearings on LNGs. Specifically to the Merchant Marine Academy and the six State marine academies, is there additional capacity at those facilities to accommodate more cadets? Mr. Connaughton. It is restricted, sir, it is limited. Basically, with the State maritime academies, the capacity is really limited by the school ships. The school ships that we provide have a certain number of berthing. The sea days that they obtain on those cruises are essential to getting the sea service necessary to get their licenses. The Merchant Marine Academy has essentially been capped at a certain amount. Right now, we have around 1,000 students. We graduate a little over 200 every year. So there are some self-limiting issues. We have tried to, especially now, we are trying to open up more cadet berths that will allow at least the State schools to potentially increase enrollment. But, for the most part, I think Admiral Craine will be testifying later on and I think he will verify this, that it is the school ships, it is the size, the age, and the ability of the school ships to handle certain capacity. That is one of the biggest limiting factors. Mr. LaTourette. Last question. The Chairman had a hearing a little earlier on the TWIC card, the transportation worker identification card. We had Homeland Security here and a number of Members of the Subcommittee expressed some disappointment with the progress of that. But in reviewing the testimony of the witnesses that will appear after you, there is an assertion by some that the requirement to have a TWIC card is perceived in the maritime industry, in some sectors, to be a deterrent from folks entering the industry. Admiral, I invite your comments on that observation that we will hear later. Admiral Whitehead. Sir, I don't go to any maritime event anywhere in the Eighth Coast Guard District where I don't hear about the TWIC cards, as I am sure you do here as well. I have heard, anecdotally, that this is a deterrent or somewhat of a barrier; it is another cost that is associated with it. I was very heartened to learn, in a recent briefing that I had, that the initial costs that were estimated for a TWIC card have gone down substantially, down to, I think, $139. So I am very heartened with that respect. I don't have any firm data to say that that is a factor, but, to be very honest, sir,--we were discussing this earlier-- if I were a merchant mariner, I would be the first one on the block to have a TWIC card, because if I have that TWIC card, you are very much more marketable in your own industry and in other industries because you have got that credential that allows you entry from a security perspective. So I know this is a little bit of a difficult issue, but just yesterday, I believe, in Delaware, we had an enrollment session there. There were 25 new credentials that were issued, but there were 1,000 mariners that were pre-enrolled to get their TWIC card, and I thought that was a pretty substantial roll-out of that system. Mr. LaTourette. I thank you for that answering. I know that when we had the hearing, I could never figure out why it is $139. That seems like a strange number to me, but thank you. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. LaTourette. Mr. Bishop. Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Mr .Chairman. I know this issue of shortage of qualified mariners has many dimensions to it, but I would like to focus on the LNG piece of it. Mr. Connaughton, your testimony indicates that the fact that we have few, if any, U.S. flagged LNG vessels--and I know you have been successful in developing a few--that U.S. mariners are at a strategic disadvantage in a market that is going to explode--perhaps I should rephrase that. [Laughter.] Mr. Bishop.--in a market that is going to expand dramatically over the next couple of years, leading potentially to safety risks, potentially to security risks. As I say, I know that you have done some work; you have been successful in bringing some U.S. flagged vessels into this market. What else can be done? What other tools perhaps can Congress give the Maritime Administration to help develop both U.S. flagged vessels and U.S. mariners in this industry? Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Bishop, I think the law today allows us to pursue voluntary agreements, and I think we have been successful in doing so. One of the things, obviously, is that we only deal with the offshore facilities; we do not deal with onshore or those within the territorial waters. So it is kind of limited in scope as to the vessels or the applications that we can raise and broach this issue. One of the things that we have also been working on and we are able to get the State maritime academies, the Merchant Marine Academy, and all the labor organization operated training schools to come together on a uniform standard of training, the same types of what we like to say is a model curriculum and career path training path that we will get everyone to come together on. It is actually implementing that now is what we are trying to focus on, as obviously there is a resource issue with that. And it is by making sure we have that type of pipeline. But I think we have been doing what we have been able to do, given the current structure of the law, given the current structure of at least the resources that we have available. I will mention one thing. We have been made aware that one of the things that is an issue is how we treat the income taxes of American mariners versus how mariners from other countries are dealt with by their own home countries that actually places our American mariners at a little bit of a disadvantage when you are looking at the general marketplace, and that is something we are trying to get a better handle on as well. Mr. Bishop. I know this question may go beyond somewhat the scope of this hearing, but for both Admiral Whitehead and Mr. Connaughton, is the fact that we have a bifurcated approval process for LNG facilities--some of them are under the jurisdiction of the FERC, others would be under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration--does that complicate this issue? I mean, is the FERC sufficiently sensitive to this issue of the qualifications of the mariners that will be serving on the vessels that will be re-gasifying these facilities? Is that something? And, as I say, I will put this question to both the Admiral and to you, Mr. Connaughton. I mean, is our process the right process? Should we not have one entity that is responsible for reviewing these applications, as opposed to two, given the fact that we have some concern about the qualifications of the mariners on these vessels? Mr. Connaughton. I will maybe answer this from this perspective. The Coast Guard is involved in both sets of applications, particularly on the environmental side. We work very, very closely with the Coast Guard on our aspect of licensing and we are the actual licensing authority for the deepwater ports. Because of the law that you all have passed, we require and have issues that FERC does not deal with, does not raise, and one issue is financial responsibility. We require some fairly substantial financial responsibility. Because of our law, we require there to be provisions on how you will dismantle facilities after you are done. But also, due to the law, we raise the issue of American flags; we raise the issue of American mariners. That is not part of FERC's law, so it doesn't get raised, as far as we are aware, in their approval process. So it does make it so there obviously is a bifurcated system. The only thing I will mention to you is that we are seeing more and more interest in offshore facilities due to some of the concerns and questions being raised by onshore facilities, but right now there is a different system and theirs is just, in many ways--well, they don't raise the same issue we do. Mr. Bishop. Thank you. Admiral Whitehead? Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. I am glad you raised this issue, sir. First, I don't believe that the bifurcated process that we have got right now is really a problem. I mean, at first, I think, ramping up, there were some issues there, at least in the Eighth Coast Guard District, in the Gulf of Mexico, where we have 8 to 15, depending on how you count, LNG facilities in development. This is now going a little bit more smoother. The whole issue of LNG permits is really almost equally owned, I think, between as an energy requirement, as a transportation security requirement. So it brings in both the Energy Department, FERC, and the Coast Guard into it. I should also say I don't believe FERC is really involved in the issue of the qualification of the mariners, and that would be more an issue for the Coast Guard, at least from an international perspective; and I am very, very concerned about that. In the Gulf of Mexico, as I mentioned--and, Mr. Chairman, we have discussed this before--right now we have about 261 annual arrivals of LNG ships into the Gulf of Mexico annually, compared to 210 everywhere else in the United States. In fiscal year 2008, we are going to go from 261 to about 780 arrivals, and in the next four or five years after that to over 6,000 to 7,000 arrivals a year. So the whole thought of the LNG, the growth of LNG, as you mentioned before, is very, very much in my concern. We are working with Maritime Administration to lay out the training standards that would be required for LNG workers under the STCW Convention, as well. So I am very, very concerned about the capacity, though, and you raised that as well. With all these new ships coming into the United States, it will require not only training for mariners, it will also require additional training for Coast Guard inspectors, who have to be very, very technically astute and trained with these brand new ships, $250 million vessels that are being constructed just for this trade. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Mr. Coble. Mr. Coble. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, good to have you all with us. The current shortage of merchant mariners available to work aboard U.S. flagged vessels, do you classify that as a moderate problem or a critical problem? Admiral Whitehead. Sir, we don't really tally up those numbers, but I can tell you I don't go to an event, either in the United States, whether it is in the inland waters, whether it is a coastal maritime group, or if it is an offshore group, where they are not talking about the shortage of mariners and getting mariners in there. I think there is a real problem, but part of that is based upon how busy the business is. All areas of the maritime industry in the United States are tremendously busy. I was astounded to learn, in the Eighth District, that between 2001 and 2007 our number of inspectors for marine inspectors had doubled, from 18,000 inspections a year to 36,000 inspections a year. Now, the year 2001 has nothing to do with 9/11. This is not security inspection, these are safety inspections; and they have doubled in five years, and that is because of the economy and because this business is so important to our economy. So it is a real concern to me and I hear about this all the time, but I don't really have the numbers to tell you. I can also tell you that, internationally, I was recently overseas and met with five or six different shipowners, and I can tell you that they are facing the same exact issues, same problems. It is a worldwide demographic issue. Mr. Coble. Thank you, Admiral. Mr. Connaughton, do you concur with that? Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Coble, again, we only have anecdotal information, until we get this survey out and actually put some numbers to it. We know this is a major, major challenge and concern. I think we are just facing a perfect storm. When you look at the increased demand for waterborne transportation, the fact that we are seeing retirements, we are seeing a lot of people go ashore because right now, especially marine engineers, any type of technical background, are really getting great job offers ashore. And then what is happening worldwide, if you look at the numbers worldwide, I will tell you right now if our numbers mirror those, we are facing a critical shortage, because the numbers worldwide are showing tens of thousands. When they do their projections, they are showing tens of thousands of licensed officers. Mr. Coble. And I think the shortages inevitably negatively impact the viability of the U.S. fleet, (a), and negatively impact the national security posture of our Country as well. Back to the statement I made earlier, gentlemen. Does the Federal Government have a responsibility to provide training or to ensure the availability of training for mariners working in the private sector? Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Coble, it has been a cornerstone of American maritime policy since 1936 that the Federal Government has a vested role, due to safety and security, national defense reasons, to have trained mariners, particularly those mariners who can be called upon during times of national emergency, which even since the 70 years since that Act was passed, we have proven time in and time out the American merchant marine and its mariners are critical to not just the economic needs of this Nation, but also its national defense, and they have always been there whenever this Nation has called. Mr. Coble. And are you currently authorized to make such funding available? Mr. Connaughton. Sir, yes. Well, our programs today, our principal programs, between the Merchant Marine Academy and the six State maritime schools, are really geared towards the deep sea mariner and what has been traditionally viewed as the most essential for the national security and economic interests. I think what we are seeing now is that many of the State schools, even our GMAT school, as well as employer-run and labor organization-run schools, are starting to deal with some of these other issues that are being faced. But, for the most part, our programs really have been geared toward the deep sea mariner, and we are now trying to make them available to the brown-water inland types of fleets. Mr. Coble. I thank you. Admiral, do you want to add anything to that? Admiral Whitehead. No, sir, I don't really have anything to add. Mr. Coble. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor. I want to thank our witnesses for being here. I am curious, Mr. Connaughton, with the problems that both the Navy and the Coast Guard have experienced in acquisitions and with the decision by Secretary Winter and I think also by the Commandant of the Coast Guard to try to bring the acquisition programs back in-house, as opposed to turning them over to the private sector, has there been any discussion with you, the Merchant Marine Academy or the other maritime academies, of explaining this programs as far as design and ramping up those acquisition programs to bring back what the Navy refers to as a supervisor of shipbuilding? And if so, is that complicating the problems that you have outlined in your testimony or is that something that is just kind of on the edge and only marginally adds to your challenges? Mr. Connaughton. Mr. Taylor, we at the Merchant Marine Academy and at the State schools, many of them have a sub-major or a major that involves shipbuilding and shipyards. However, for the most part, almost all the programs, at least that we are involved with, are really geared towards making sure we have merchant marine officers. We haven't attempted to address that type of issue. We recognize very much that many of the shipyards are facing some enormous challenges themselves in finding people, but that is actually not in the acquisition side, but really focused on the actual technical and detail issues of the shipyards. I just want to mention one thing to you, that I have become very diligent in ensuring that we grant few, if not--well, I limit the number of waivers that are available to graduates from this year from the Merchant Marine Academy--I will be looking at the State schools as well--regarding their obligations and whether they can go ashore. Because of the great job market and the fact that we need people onboard these vessels of every size, I am pushing them to go to sea and fulfill their obligation. The only exception to that is that I have allowed a certain percentage to work in the shipyards because of recognizing their issues and problems, and we can't have these good challenges of recapitalization and more vessels without the yards to produce them. So I have bene allowing some graduates to actually go into the shipyards, but we have not been focused on the acquisition side, sir. Mr. Taylor. Just as a matter of curiosity--and maybe, Admiral, this would be better directed at you--I was looking at the--and I happen to have been a Member of Congress in the wake of the tragic accident outside of Mobile that led to Congressman Tauzin and others substantially increasing the training for mariners and the hurdles for mariners. I am curious, when you talk about the costs of acquiring those additional licenses and those additional courses, are the people who take these courses, are they eligible for the Montgomery GI bill if they are veterans? Is that something that the Montgomery GI bill would pay for, as if they were going to a community college or normal university? Admiral Whitehead. Sir, I am not at all an expert on that, but I would believe it is. I think we need to get back to you with an answer on that. Mr. Taylor. Would you, please? [Information follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 38515.012 Admiral Whitehead. But I think that is something that sounds to me like it would clearly fit into the GI bill. Mr. Taylor. Okay. Admiral Whitehead. We will get back to you on that, sir. Mr. Taylor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Thank you. Mr. Gilchrest. Mr. Gilchrest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick comment on high schools. I think, Mr. Connaughton, you said that you might focus on Mr. Cummings' high schools for high school maritime. If you could come over to the eastern shore of Maryland, maybe we could double up on that. In the course of my district work, we have college seminars for students twice a year, and we always make sure that we have a representative from the Merchant Marine Academy at those seminars. I think what we ought to do in addition to that-- maybe, Elijah, you and I can work on this--is have school officials in one of those seminars to show what opportunities there are out there in the maritime industry, something that we don't really place a lot of emphasis on. But there is, I think, a valuable reason for doing that because there are many students, I just know, that this doesn't fall within their frame of reference. If they had the opportunity, they were exposed to it, they would take advantage of it, which leads to the next question. If we can't now expand, for example, the Merchant Marine Academy that we have or the six other State academies that we have, and we want more high schools to expose students to this type of opportunity, that means we really need to find a way to start expanding those college facilities so that they can take advantage of these opportunities. I guess, Mr. Connaughton, how many graduates from the Merchant Marine Academy do you know stay in a career in the maritime industry? Is there a percentage we could look at? Mr. Connaughton. We can give you some of those numbers, sir. I don't have them with me. I can tell you, again, from my anecdotal information, that the vast majority do stay in. Mr. Gilchrest. I see. Mr. Connaughton. They may go ashore and assume management positions, but, for the most part, I think that almost all stay in some sort of maritime-related field. Mr. Gilchrest. The other thing, it is my understanding-- although I don't know this, I am not on the Armed Services Committee; maybe Gene Taylor can tell me--if you are a graduate of West Point or the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy, it is my understanding that the military will send you to graduate school or post-graduate school. You can get a PhD while you are in the military. When you graduate the Merchant Marine Academy and you want to get a further degree, a Master's or a PhD, does the maritime industry, in some capacity, pay for that degree? Mr. Connaughton. Well, it is not necessarily the advanced degree, sir, as much as it is maybe the advanced license. I think what the normal career path would be, starting out as a Third Mate or Third Assistant, then moving up to Second, First, and then Master or a Chief Engineer. I think the challenge that everyone is facing today is that it has become very, very difficult for mariners to work their way up the what we used to call hawsepipe, license-to-license. And also for those mariners who are sailing, if they are not a member of a labor organization with a training school or they do not have an employer to pay for these courses that are required due to regulatory---- Mr. Gilchrest. So if you are a graduate of the maritime industry or one of these State schools, to move up the ladder, for example, is vastly different than it would be to move up the ladder in the Coast Guard or the Navy. Mr. Connaughton. Yes, sir, that is correct. Mr. Gilchrest. This isn't the same sort of structure. Is there any way we could take a look at that structure and begin the process of examining it to change it? Mr. Connaughton. Well, you know, it is one of these issues, sir, where there are regulatory standards that deal with the licensing and then there are the educational standards. And every one of these graduates from Kings Point and those who have the obligation from the State schools, they end up having their commission in the military, in the Reserve; they have their degree and they have their license; and if you sort of look at them, all three have different sorts of career paths and different sorts of requirements. Mr. Gilchrest. If you look at the number of graduates in the maritime industry today, the State schools or Merchant Marine Academy, how short are they of meeting demand? Mr. Connaughton. It is difficult to actually put a number on it. I can tell you that my conversations with particularly the State presidents, that they have never seen applications like they have seen today, the numbers of people trying to get into their, in particular, licensed programs. And when you look, anecdotally, at the number of employers coming to the career days, trying to attract soon to be new graduates, they are seeing record numbers of companies coming and seeking graduates, and many graduates having multiple job offers. I mean, again, we are going to try to get a handle on some of the real numbers, but we have never seen a job market this good, or at least have not seen a job market this good in a very long time. Mr. Gilchrest. That is great. Thank you very much. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Gilchrest, would you yield for one minute? Mr. Gilchrest. I think I have five minutes left. Do I have five minutes left, Elijah? Mr. Cummings. Yes. Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Gilchrest. Secretary, I am just curious. Is anyone tracking--I am sort of familiar with the offshore supply vessel business and the boom and bust with it, so I am curious, is anyone tracking the boom in the offshore supply vessel business to what extent that is affecting the shortages that are going on right now; and, again, it has been very cyclical. If there is a bust, there is the boom in hiring for the young people coming out of the Merchant Marine Academy, coming out of S.U.N.Y. Does that continue or do we get back to a situation where we were a few years ago, where we are looking for places for these young people to serve? Mr. Connaughton. Sir, I think, at $88 a barrel for oil, the boom is here. They are going further and further out in the exploration for oil. What we are seeing--again, it is anecdotal conversations with OMSA, the offshore industry, as well as actual individual operators that they are having a very difficult time finding people. They are offering incredible salaries, and as long as oil stays at the price it is, which, given the growth in the economies in China and India, as well as the rest of the Far East, we think the boom times are going to be here for quite some time, sir. And the salaries and the size of the vessels and the complexity of the vessels that are in the offshore industry is like something we have never seen before; they really are ships. And for the foreseeable future, as long as those economies worldwide continue to grow, we think the boom time for the offshore industry is going to be there and stay here. Mr. Taylor. But does that contribute 20 percent of the demand, is it 10 percent of the demand, is it half the demand? That is what I am trying to get in my mind. Mr. Connaughton. I don't know, sir. I actually have numbers, aggregate numbers for employment. Again, when I said it was about 85 percent right now, just a few months after graduation at sea or in the military, we can go back and try to break those numbers down and see actually where people are working. Given that, actually, right now, in the United States, on the deepwater side, we do have a sufficient number of mariners, I think when we go back and break these numbers down and get them back to you, we are going to see that the vast majority of the demand for these graduates is offshore as well as inland. Mr. Cummings. Mr. Larsen. Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Larsen. I am waiting for that clock to reset to get my five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Admiral Whitehead, something specific to Washington State. We are obviously looking at, on the Committee, lifestyle issues, wage levels, requirements, and so on. I know that the Coast Guard is working with the State ferry system to implement some regulations on crew endurance and fatigue, and these regulations, specifically the requirement that a mariner work no more than 12 hours in a 24 hour period, don't always work with our State ferry schedule, which is not a tourist attraction, but State ferries are an important part of our commerce and transportation system. I just wanted to get your impression. Is the Coast Guard able to be flexible enough with the regulations as they apply to different sectors of the maritime industry? Because this particular sector of the maritime industry is in fact particular largely to Washington State, the largest vehicle traffic on ferries, the largest passenger traffic on ferries of any ferry system in the Country. Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. I am generally familiar with your ferry system. I know it is a very large one and it plays a great role in your economy and, of course, in transportation. The crew endurance system, I am glad our people are working the your State officials on that as well, because it is a very important issue for us. Right now, the laws, as I understand them, read basically that a mariner can't operate more than 12 hours continuously, except in an emergency situation. So I am not sure that we have the flexibility to make any changes in that right now, but I am quite sure the State ferry system is engaging with our maritime licensing people within the Thirteenth Coast Guard District. Mr. Larsen. I am sure they are. I know that they are, and I just hope that there is enough flexibility found to continue to make our ferry system work. It is not easy. Sometimes you just can't take an 8 foot skiff from San Juan Island to Anacortes to get back home after your shift is done, and that is a scheduling problem, obviously, but sometimes that is the way it works when you have the ferry system you have. Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. I should also say that if they are on a two-watch schedule, which I believe they are there, there is flexibility within the company itself or the State to adjust those hours in some way. Many companies--and I am not sure about your ferry system--are operating on a square six system, where they are doing six hours off and six hours on, and there is some flexibility there, providing they don't exceed the 12 hours. Mr. Larsen. Okay. I just wanted to highlight that. The second is for you as well. In your testimony, you talk about future improvements that will benefit merchant mariners, and the four bullet points read more like a list of goals as opposed to specifics, so I was wondering if you could walk through a couple of specifics. One is expediting the regulatory implementation for training and recruitment, and second is improving the mariner credentialing through greater efficiency, transparency, and capacity, and continuing to improve processes. It sounds a little more goal-oriented than specific actions. If you can walk through the actions for us. Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. I have to tell you I came to the Eighth Coast Guard District about a year ago. I was very dismayed at the delays that we were seeing at our regional examination centers in New Orleans and Houston. We took some immediate actions for improvement and now--and I have to tell you I was a bit skeptical with the future implementation or standing up of the National Maritime Center. My offices have been working very closely with the NMC to see exactly what they are doing, and I had an opportunity about a month ago to come up and visit the in West Virginia. And I have to tell you I will certainly not tell you today that we have turned the corner on licensing and credentials, some of the delays that we have had, but I think the corner is in sight. I am very, very heartened by the improvements that we are making and that the NMC is making. There is a variety of things that we are trying to do at the NMC and the numbers are actually showing up as improvements. So there is activity that is showing some real improvements. But what we are trying to do at the National Maritime Center is, first off, to decrease the processing time that is involved in getting a mariner his credential, whether it is a license or a merchant mariner's document, from the time he submits it. Before, we had 17 regional examination centers that probably each had their own process for how they would handle a license or an MMD application. Now we will be going to a system where we have just one location and one process to manage. So I thin that will give us some clear improvements there. We are trying to also improve consistency of service by having centralized evaluators in one place. That will, I think, also help us. And then, finally, we are improving things with customer service, which was an area that was sorely in need of some improvement. We have established a new toll-free call center, where a mariner can call up this 888 number toll free, they can get an application sent to them. Once their application is submitted, they can actually monitor the progress of their license online, and they can track it and see it, and they can talk to a human being and find out exactly where their license application is in the system. And I mentioned to you that we are getting results. Just in the period of time since the NMC has stood up, a matter of months, they have reduced the inventory of applications that were awaiting processing by 39 percent. In addition, the average license renewal has decreased by about 25 percent in the time it takes to get out since June. I have to tell you that one of the other major things that is an improvement, I think, in the Eighth Coast Guard District, particularly at New Orleans, but also Memphis and Houston, one of the problems we had was our applications were coming in at a rate of about 60 percent to 80 percent errors. So the applications were not complete when they were turned in. This put a little bit of a hardship on the mariner in the sense that he or she might be going to sea, and they would mail in their application and there was maybe a block that needed to be filled in or some document that wasn't here, and then they are gone for maybe several months, potentially, and then they come back and get the thing, then they mail it off again; and it was this back and forth. So it was a real problem. We are now going to assist them where, in the Eighth District, we have created a CD wizard application, so you can plug the CD in, and if you forget to fill in something, it will highlight it in red, just as you would see if you ordered something on line and you forgot to put your telephone number in it. So we are going to that and the NMC is now seeking additional funding to be able to improve their licensing documentation computer system to give them greater flexibility and speed up their process time as well. So I think we are really seeing some very, very important changes, and with that comes additional people, additional people that have not been there in the past that will be able to, I think, handle the capacity much better. I am very optimistic. Mr. Larsen. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Boustany may sit with the Subcommittee and participate in this hearing. Without objection, so ordered. Mr. Boustany, do you have questions? Mr. Boustany. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Having just come in, I don't have any specific questions at this time. I just want to say that workforce issues in the maritime industry, in my home State of Louisiana, we have reached a crisis stage. I represent coastal Louisiana, two of the parishes in coastal Louisiana. I have visited a number of our facilities, and this is something that is urgent. It is a complex problem and I hopeful that we can start looking toward solutions as we go forward. I want to thank the Subcommittee Chairman for holding this hearing and for allowing me to sit in. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Ms. Richardson. Ms. Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just three quick questions. In the information provided, you talk about a list of individual companies that provided partnership programs. Could you please provide this Committee the contact information and the location of those individual companies? Mr. Connaughton. Yes, ma'am, we will provide those to you. Ms. Richardson. My second question is it also is noted in the information that the Seafarers International Union in Maryland has a pretty extensive apprenticeship program. Could you also provide to this Committee for the other locations where the Seafarers are located? For example, for me in California, do they have a similar program? And, if not, what we could do to make that happen? And, number three, you also noted in the information that there are 250 training providers. If we could also receive that information of contacts and locations. Mr. Connaughton. Sure, ma'am. We will get you all of those. Ms. Richardson. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Ms. Richardson. Let me just ask. I want to go back to you, Admiral Whitehead. In the next panel there is going to be some discussion by Mr. Michael Rodriguez, Assistant to the President of Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union, about the way mariners are treated, and, as you know, the conduct of the Coast Guard's ALJ system has been, and continues to be, of great concern to the entire Subcommittee. One witness write in testimony that the Coast Guard is unwilling to fully inform mariners of the nature of an investigation and their rights during an investigation. Also, the testimony suggests that the information given by the mariner in an accident investigation could be used to prosecute the mariner. Is this common practice? The Coast Guard has been required to cite the Miranda rights to a mariner when their statements may be used against them. And so that you understand the relevance, in Mr. Rodriguez's testimony, what he is saying is that because of the way mariners are treated, it is his belief that that may deter them from wanting to become mariners. In other words, they don't want to suddenly become criminals when they are trying to pursue their life pursuits, and they feel, quite often, that they have been treated unfairly. Now, this doesn't just come from Mr. Rodriguez. As you know, we have had an extensive hearing on ALJ and there has been no subject that this Subcommittee has addressed that has drawn more interest than the fairness of hearings and the ALJ process. So would you comment on that for me, please? Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. As I understand it, there are about 5,600 cases a year that are brought from the Coast Guard that could potentially result in an administrative hearing, and of those, most of those are handled, let's say, in-house by the Coast Guard, so that there are only around 1,100 that even make its way up to the ALJs. And then, at that point, most are handled in some way that don't result actually in a hearing, so that there are only a couple hundred hearings a year. With respect to the potential prosecutions, there are some laws that are old on the books and some newer ones that certainly require the prosecution of mariners if there is a criminal violation, and cases that come to my mind are cases involving environmental crimes. Should a case like that come up, I am quite sure that the Coast Guard ourselves would not prosecute an individual criminally; that would go to the local U.S. attorney, and at that point we would turn it over to the U.S. attorney. And whether the U.S. attorney could handle those types of cases, it is a selective sort of thing based on their workload, I believe. Mr. Cummings. But you didn't address my question. And I realize that you may not have been prepared for that, but I would really like for you to look into that issue, and I will put it in writing, the issue of Miranda rights and a lot of times mariners feeling that they have been placed in a position where they are damned if they do and damned if they don't, and they think they are trying to work out issues and it is like a ``gotcha'' kind of situation, as opposed to a situation where there is some leeway, where it could be worked out; the next thing you know, they are hauled before an ALJ hearing and have not been even given the Miranda rights. As you know, we are looking seriously and, by the way, in a bipartisan way, in removing the ALJ from under the Coast Guard. We are just looking at trying to figure out the best way to do it. But, in the meantime, we just want to make sure that mariners are treated fairly and that we are not causing folks not to come into this profession because of the belief that they might be treated that way. Admiral Whitehead. Yes, sir. I would be glad to get back to you on the record with that, sir, but I should say that unless things have changed, I used to be an investigator myself, many years ago, and if there were some belief that there was a criminal violation involved, I am quite sure our Coast Guard investigator would give the appropriate warnings. Mr. Cummings. All right. And the other thing that we will do is we are going to make sure that you get a copy of the relevant testimony so that you can--sometimes I think we sort of talk passed each other--so that you will know what the people who are subject to the Coast Guard are feeling and saying. Okay? Admiral Whitehead. I would be happy to do that, sir. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, both of you. We really appreciate it. Thank you. If our next panel would come forth now, please. Mr. Michael Rodriguez is the Assistant to the President of the Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union; Mr. Carl Annessa, President for Operations, Hornbeck Offshore Services; Ms. Cathy Hammond, Chief Executive Officer for Inland Marine Services with the American Waterways Operators; Admiral John Craine, the President of Maritime College of New York; Captain William Beacom, Navigation Consultant and Professional Mariner; and Mr. Augustin Tellez, Executive Vice President of Seafarers International Union. First of all, thank you all for being with us. It is my understanding that we are going to have a vote in about 10 minutes. We have got six witnesses, so let's try to adhere, as close we can, to the five minute rule. Thank you. And if you want to take less, you are welcome. [Laughter.] TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT, MASTERS, MATES AND PILOTS; CARL ANNESSA, COO/VICE PRESIDENT FOR OPERATIONS, HORNBECK OFFSHORE SERVICES FOR OFFSHORE MARINE SERVICE ASSOCIATION; CATHY HAMMOND, CEO, INLAND MARINE SERVICE FOR AMERICAN WATERWAY OPERATORS; ADMIRAL JOHN CRAINE, JR. USN, RETIRED, PRESIDENT, S.U.N.Y. MARITIME COLLEGE; CAPTAIN WILLIAM BEACOM, NAVIGATION CONSULTANT, PROFESSIONAL MARINER; AUGUSTIN TELLEZ, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, SEAFARERS INTERNATIONAL UNION Mr. Rodriguez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will go through this as quickly as possible, in the interest of time. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee. I am Michael Rodriguez, Executive Assistant to the President of the International Organization of Masters, Mates, and Pilots. I began my career in the maritime industry as a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1979. I sailed as a deck officer aboard U.S. flagged vessels until 1995. I am an officer of the Naval Reserve and a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom. Thank you for inviting me to appear today. America's mariners are an important national asset, an asset that our Nation cannot afford to lose. Mariners have served our armed forces; they are supporting our troops in the Middle East. As Naval officers, mariners have performed on active duty at sea, ashore, and as harbor pilots. American mariners play a role in relief and humanitarian efforts. Following the attack on the World Trade Center, mariners rapidly mobilized to evacuate thousands from lower Manhattan. In 2005, they helped provide relief to the victims of the Gulf hurricanes and the tsunami. A strong commercial fleet provides good paying jobs and is an essential part of maintaining these capabilities and attracting young people to our industry. To this purpose, there are three fundamental elements of maritime policy that Congress and the Administration must continue to support. First, the Maritime Security Program is crucial toward maintaining a U.S. flagged fleet and an American presence in world shipping markets and opportunity for mariners; second, the Jones Act is central to our economic security and an important source of jobs; and, third, our cargo preference laws must be fully enforced. They provide an important incentive for shipowners to keep their ships under the American flag. Mariners face many challenges: they endure long separations from home, extreme working environments, and the dangers of the sea. They have always accepted these difficulties, but there are aspects of their work that governments and industry can manage. Criminalization of the unintentional acts of mariners following accidents is a human rights issue as well as a recruiting and retention issue. The maritime community recognizes that mariners, subject to the laws of many jurisdictions, must have special legal protections under uniform international standards. Regrettably, the United States opposes the international community's work on this issue. Mariners live where they work. They often sleep only a few feet away from engine rooms, cargo spaces, and machinery. Quality rest is essential for a safe workplace, stress relief, and overall health. A recent survey reported that one in four mariners said they had fallen asleep on watch. Nearly 50 percent of mariners reported work weeks of 85 hours or longer. Almost 50 percent of mariners believe their working hours are a danger to their personal safety. In the short term, stress and fatigue cause accidents. In the long-term, the effects are poor health and reduced life expectancy. Maritime security regulations have not only increased the workload on our mariners, they have cut off mariners' ties with the shore. Unfortunately, in many ports around the United States, mariners, labor representatives, visitors, and welfare service providers are denied access under the pretense of maritime security. The right to shore leave is a part of the International Ship and Port Facility Code, which is a treaty obligation of the United States. However, this important human right is often ignored. The Members of this Subcommittee are well aware of the problems with the TWIC program. There are two issues that most directly affect the maritime workforce. First, the program goes well beyond what Congress originally intended and it unnecessarily burdens mariners. For instance, mariners or prospective mariners who have committed one of the disqualifying crimes will be denied a TWIC until they prove that they are not a terrorism threat. Many of these individuals will leave the industry rather than endure this bureaucratic exercise. Second, a TWIC will not guarantee access for mariners to shore leave because the TWIC, a Federal security program, does not preempt State, local, or facility access control measures. Mr. Chairman, the United States must stop treating mariners like criminals and begin to treat them like the national asset that they are. They are dedicated professionals performing services essential to our Nation's economic and national security. If we can manage and develop this national asset appropriately, we have a chance to compete for the best and brightest of our young people. This concludes my remarks, Mr. Chairman. I would be happy to answer your questions. Mr. Cummings. Mr. Annessa? Mr. Annessa. Thank you for allowing me to testify on this subject this morning. My name is Carl Annessa. I am the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Hornbeck Offshore Services, a publicly traded company which owns and operates vessels that support the offshore and the gas industry. Today, I am testifying on behalf of the Offshore Marine Service Association. OMSA's member companies are the lifeline to America's offshore energy resources, providing the U.S. flagged vessels that move all of the equipment and most of the workers needed to find and produce our Nation's offshore oil and gas resources. The topic of this hearing is important and timely: the offshore work boat sectors and the process of replacing and upgrading our fleet, building an estimated 150 offshore service vessels over the next five years. A recent OMSA survey indicates that our members will need about 3600 mariners to crew these new state-of-the-art vessels. Given the time that it takes for a mariner to work his or her way up to becoming a licensed captain or a licensed engineer, building our workforce is as important an industry priority as is building our new vessels. Our industry is concerned about the licensing process. The burdens that the International Standards for Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping Code have placed on our mariners are challenging. The STCW, which sets worldwide standards for mariners, was developed for large ships on ocean voyages. However, more than 90 percent of the U.S. flagged vessels that fall under the requirements of the STCW are smaller coastal and offshore boats. Increasingly, the Coast Guard's interpretation of STCW's mandates are out of synch with the needs of the vast majority of American mariners who fall under STCW. The Coast Guard does deserve credit, however, for its efforts to revamp its licensing and documentation system, and to cut down somewhat on the delays wrought by the implementation of STCW. From every indication, and some of those that you heard a minute ago from Admiral Whitehead, those reforms are beginning to take hold and beginning to improve the results of the licensing process that our employees face. However, the licensing process was developed for another age, when mariners had different and less complex needs. The current reforms may only improve the efficiency of an antiquated system. The Coast Guard needs to continue to strive for the modernization of the entire process to meet the needs of mariners today. If that takes additional resources, we would certainly encourage Congress to fund it. Another challenge that we face, again, as you have heard, is the aging of our workforce. A recent OMSA survey of member companies has determined that nearly half of our licensed officers are over the age of 50. That means, in five or ten years, our most experienced captains and engineers will be approaching retirement. Since it may take at least that many years for a mariner to rise to a senior position of responsibility in one of our vessels, we can't afford to waste any time in addressing that future and impending shortfall. The Coast Guard is currently working on new fitness-for- duty standards. We need to make sure that, as these medical standards are implemented, that they make sense and don't inadvertently cut productive careers short. Mariner wellness programs will become more and more important to our industry and the marine community at large. Congress should consider funding a program that helps promote wellness in the maritime industry. OMSA would welcome the chance to participate in a pilot project toward that end. The foregoing standard industry has a true strength: in the offshore work boat industry, we can offer Americans the opportunity to earn a very good living at a skilled profession. We can take young men and women and give them a clear career ladder that will move them from positions of entry level, unskilled laborers to senior positions as licensed masters and licensed engineers of multi-million dollar vessels. We will provide the training the mariner needs to advance to a job that could pay a six figure salary. We also offer a very safe workplace, one that is statistically safer than most any other workplace in America, according to OMSA data. The nature of the work can be hard and stressful, but I think our industry does offer something that is a fundamental American value, and that is opportunity. Individuals who come to work in our industry know, the day they first walk aboard one of our vessels, that their ability to succeed depends on their skill, their energy, and their willingness to work hard. We think that is a very American concept and worth celebrating and defending. Ultimately, we believe that that value will be the source of our success as an industry. We certain welcome the role of the United States Coast Guard as a partner in our efforts to streamline mariner education, licensing, and career development, but insist that they will so continue in that function, that they be adequately motivated, staffed, and funded for their role in that process. Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Ms. Hammond. Ms. Hammond. Good morning. I am Cathy Hammond, CEO of Inland Marine Service in Hebron, Kentucky. We are a privately held company in the marine business since 1981. Unlike many companies in our industry, Inland Marine Service does not own towboats or barges. We provide the personnel to operate inland towboats for our client companies. We recruit, train, and dispatch the crew members for 19 boats operating on the Mississippi and Ohio River systems. I am testifying this morning on behalf of the American Waterways Operators. AWO is a national trade association for the tugboat, towboat, and barge industry, an industry that provides family wage jobs for more than 30,000 mariners in the brown-and blue-water trade. I love this industry, I believe in it, and I am proud of it. The towing industry provides great opportunities for young people looking to start a career or other Americans looking to make a career change. A college degree is not required. A young person can begin earning a living wage right away, and six figure incomes are achievable for those motivated to become pilots, mates, and captains. Despite the opportunities our industry offers, a career on the water is not for everyone. Today, the towing industry faces a critical shortage of vessel personnel. This is a problem at two levels: first, attracting new people to the industry and convincing them to make their career on the water; and, second, replacing retiring captains and replenishing critical wheel house positions. My written testimony describes in some detail the reasons for this situation. For now, let me simply say that there are no silver bullets that will solve the industry's personnel shortage and ensure the necessary supply of well qualified, well trained mariners to crew our vessels and meet our Nation's current and future transportation needs. Our industry recognizes that companies themselves bear the primary responsibility for making our industry as attractive as possible to current and prospective employees, and being creative in our recruitment and retention programs. We are working hard to do just that. We also believe that there is a role for Congress and the Federal agencies to play. The place to start is by eliminating government-imposed obstacles that make the job of attracting and retaining qualified crew members more difficult. We offer the following recommendations. First, government policies and regulations such as the TWIC program that established barriers for new hires should be modified. We urgently request your support for including a practical interim work authority provision for new hires in the manager's amendment to the Coast Guard authorization bill. Second, the Coast Guard should carefully review its protocols for interacting with vessel personnel and ensure that a stated objective of honoring the mariner is reflected in its dealings with the professionals who crew our boats. Routine interaction with vessel personnel should not be conducted in the same manner as a for-cause law enforcement boarding. Third, the Coast Guard should make changes to its licensing system that eliminates obstacles to advancement while ensuring high standards of safety. Congress should monitor the Coast Guard's ongoing effort to restructure and centralize the licensing program, and ensure that this much needed effort truly achieves its intended goals. Fourth, the Maritime Administration should recognize the changes in the domestic merchant marine and ensure that its publications reflect the fact that the majority of the onboard jobs today are on so-called small boats or small vessels such as towboats and tugboats. Fifth, Congress and the Maritime Administration should ensure that the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy modernizes its focus to reflect the domestic fleet today and help prepare graduates for jobs in the towing industry. Finally, we believe MARAD can also play a role in helping companies and mariners understand and tap into existing government resources or public-private partnerships for training and education. Mr. Chairman, the personnel shortage is a complex problem and there are no simple solutions. However, if government can take these items as a work list and industry redoubles its efforts to improve crew member recruiting and retention, together we can make a meaningful difference in tackling this important and growing problem. Thank you very much. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Admiral Craine. Admiral Craine. Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members of this Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. While I am with the State University of New York Maritime College, I am here to represent all of the State maritime academies. And if I can convey only one message to you today, it is this: the State maritime academies--from Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, California, Great Lakes in Michigan--produce the vast majority of all new licensed officers in the United States each year. These colleges are an extraordinary value to our Nation, but they need more government support to meet the growing demand for merchant officers who play such a critical role in our national security. Last year, these State academies produced 70 percent of all new licensed officers. This is up from 51 percent just four years ago, and we expect this upward trend to continue. There is tremendous demand, as we have already heard, for licensed officers. Many Federal agencies compete for our graduates along with the growing need and demand from the commercial industry. Former Commander of the Military Sealift Command, Admiral Brewer, stated that our national military sealift requirements cannot be met without these graduates. The State maritime academies operate under what is essentially a Federal mandate and are accountable to Congress, the Maritime Administration, the Coast Guard, and the International Maritime Organization for the education and training of our licensed students. Yet, only 3 percent of our annual funding comes from the Federal Government. The annual Federal contribution to the State academies has ranged from $10 million to $13 million a year for all six State academies combined. The amount provided today is less than it was 15 years ago in real dollars, a 25 percent decrease, while inflation for higher education has gone up by 70 percent. One of our most valuable assets is our federally provided training ships. These vessels provide invaluable, real-world, hands-on training to our students. The ships are generally older, former Naval or cargo vessels that need to be converted for school ship use. A ship assigned to Texas Maritime is not deployable as a training ship due to lack of Federal funds to convert it for school use. Three other ships, while usable, are still awaiting additional Federal dollars to complete their conversions. The oldest of these six ships is 46 years old and will soon need to be replaced. These ships are used by the Federal Government for other global and national emergencies. Half of them were activated by the President for humanitarian use following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. These ships should be considered national assets and funded accordingly. Recruiting initiatives play a critical and crucial role in attracting young men and women into a maritime career. We ask a great deal of our students, who take in excess of 160 semester credit hours in order to graduate, versus a norm of 120 to 130 for other college students, largely because of the merchant marine license courses that are required by the Federal Government to graduate. They also spend in excess of six months at sea during their summer and winter breaks. The State maritime academies offer in-State tuition or a reduced regional tuition to students from other States, to all other States, as an incentive to attract more prospective students. We are also working not only with high schools, but with elementary schools to get young students interested in a maritime career. The Federal Government also has a student incentive program that provides funds directly to students to offset the cost of uniforms, books, and subsistence in return for a service obligation in the merchant marine reserve. Unfortunately, payments in this program have not kept up with inflation and it is not the incentive that it used to be. Mr. Chairman, we will continue to carry out our mission of recruiting--which is our toughest job--educating, and placing the world's best trained, licensed mariners, but we need more Federal support in order to meet the growing demand for licensed merchant officers, for our training ships, our license programs, and the student incentive program. A stronger partnership with the Federal Government will better enable us to serve the needs of our Nation and our world. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for this opportunity and I look forward to any questions this Subcommittee might have. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much to the panel and our guests. It is my plan to--we have three votes, one fifteen and two fives, and so five minutes. So what I plan to do is reconvene at 12:30. But I would like to get the testimony of our two witnesses in. We have exactly 11 minutes and 27 seconds. Captain Beacom. Captain Beacom. My name is Captain Bill Beacom, and I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the Committee. I am a lifetime mariner, second generation. I was on boats by the time I was five years old. I got my first look at a wheelhouse all by myself when I was 17 and became a licensed mariner when I was 20. I am currently in my eleventh issue. I have run all of the rivers that the Admiral mentioned before and dozens more. The problem that we face with the industry is that people like me can't come up with a viable reason or a logical reason why anybody should join the industry, and we are the recruiters. What we find ourselves doing is trying to convince somebody that has got a certain amount of logic into joining something that is illogical. The pay looks really good on paper, but when you get on the vessels, you find that they can work you up to 14 hours a day the whole time you are on there, without any intervention by any regulatory agency or anything else. In a 30-day period, you can actually put in 10 42-hour weeks, and it isn't conducive to that. Now, you know, we always figure that we should have to take our hard knocks, you know, pay our dues, but paying our dues just doesn't get us anywhere because, when you become a pilot, you would think that you wouldn't have to work over 12 hours out of a 24-hour period because that is what the law says. But the law was in place long before we had 9/11, and since 9/11-- even though before that we already had watch change conferences, which takes about an hour a day, when the two people have to be in the wheelhouse at the same time. And, by the way, any kind of a management system that requires both the pilot and the captain to be working at the same time breaks the law, just by the zero sum. If you get 24 hours and you have got to split it up into watches, and nobody can work any more than 12 hours, any time both are required to be on watch at the same time, you break the law. So the watch change conference, by the letter of law, breaks it. Now we come along with our responsible carrier program, and the captains and the pilots were pretty well in a position that they couldn't argue with it, but they had to enforce it, and that takes time besides navigation time. Then 9/11 came along and the captain became the vessel security officer. Now, in the Federal Register it said it probably wouldn't take over two and a half hours a day to fulfill the requirements of the vessel safety security officer, but the companies are very proud of the fact that it only takes about 40 minutes, but that 40 minutes is also outside the 12 hour law. And then we have the responsibilities of the crew endurance management system, not counting all of the paperwork stuff that we have to do in between. So you don't graduate from a 14-hour day to a 12-hour day, you graduate from a 14-hour day to another 14-hour day. And two of those hours are outside of the law. But do you dare say anything? No. Because, if you do, then you are considered to be a rabble rouser and you will be looking for other employment; and that is exactly why the people in this industry are 50 or 55 years old, because that is the only thing they know how to do, and they are just tolerating this onerous load that you have put upon us, and they are just working until the end of it, and very few of them stay over. Now, the wages are way up and it looks really good in the long-term, but a survey was done by John Sutton, the President of AIM, in 1998, in which he concluded that the average life expectancy of a towboat captain is 57 years and 8 months. And I brought that survey up to date, to 2004, and it stayed about the same; it might have even went down a little bit. So there is really nothing that would attract a person to this industry. We are overloaded; they have cut the crews on the boats. Not only have they cut the crews, the turnover has made it to where less of the people in the crews have experience. Because there is only a small amount of the people in the crews that have experience, they are worked to death; and a 14-hour day sometimes becomes a relief, because if you have two or three people on the boat that don't have the experience, then you have to make up for it. So what we really need is enforcement of the regulations that we have, and we need some new manning requirements. Mr. Cummings. You convinced me. Mr. Tellez. Mr. Tellez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since I drew the short straw, I will try to be as quick as possible. Thank you for the opportunity, and welcome, to Ms. Richardson, to our world. I am Augustin Tellez, commonly known as Augie Tellez. I am the Executive Vice President of the Seafarers A&G District. Along with our affiliates, including the AMO, we are the largest representative of mariners employed throughout the entire spectrum in the maritime world. Quick snapshots, since we are pressed for time. Any discussion of manpower issues has to be taken in the context, first off, in national security. If you talk to a logistician, he will tell you the strategist plans the war, the tactician fights the war, and the logistician wins the war, and the way he does that is by the successful movement and sustainment of movement of vast volumes of cargo and material and troops required to win the battle. The major engine fueling that successful effort is the United States merchant marine and the manpower pool required to staff it. Besides the importance of the vessels themselves, more importantly, the U.S. commercial fleet, a viable and effective U.S. commercial fleet is a key component because it provides the employment base by which everything revolves. The other part of that merchant marine effort is the organic fleet or the military ships, including MARAD's RRF vessels. One of the lessons learned during the first Gulf War was that the Nation could not depend on laid-up old vessels without crews to be activated in a short period of time and go to war. We learned that lesson very quickly. Besides mechanical failures, it taxed the manpower pool employed at that time. In order to address those issues, we changed the way we did business and we came up with the RRF ROS program, which puts a cadre of crew members on all those laid-up vessels to not only maintain them and keep them ready, but also to provide a nucleus crew for any activation crew. Having said that, the commercial fleet being so important, we would like to thank this Committee, this Congress for their support and their continued support for programs like the Maritime Security Program, Cargo Preference, and all the other programs and policies that keep that commercial fleet viable. It is also amazing that, having talked about the importance of the RRF vessel, we are a little dismayed at the government's efforts, in order to realize some short-term financial savings, it is looking to reduce and eliminate entirely some of those RRF vessels and their crews, which exasperates the problem we are here talking about because it eliminates employment base and jobs. In general, the Union is not experiencing the shortage, at least on the deep sea side that we are here talking about. Part of that is because of the viability of the commercial fleet. It is also because we meet the challenges of the manpower issues through the aforementioned school in Piney Point. It just celebrated its fortieth anniversary and in that time has graduated 22,000 apprentices, new recruits. It has also graduated 100,000 upgraders and issued to them 238,000 certificates, many of them Coast Guard certified and STCW certified. In anticipation of the boom in the Gulf mentioned by Mr. Taylor, a few years ago we met with our contracted companies and came up and developed an inland license program in conjunction with our contracted companies. They support it, they sponsor it. That, augmented by an inland apprentice program, creates kind of a cradle-to-the-grave situation where we recruit people specifically for that industry, ultimate objective of getting their license. In conclusion, let me just say the manpower issue, any manpower issue can be handled as long as you control and manage the pipeline efficiently. And as long as there are jobs, viable, effective jobs out there, you can manage any--meet any challenge or manpower issue. Also, before closing, my one comment on TWIC. Everyone else made their comments on TWIC. I find it amazing that we are sitting here talking about TWIC and imposing more stringent regulations and background checks on the most regulated people already, American citizens, and the very vessels that Mr. Bishop was talking about are transporting LNG gas into our Country with who knows who on those ships. Thank you for your time. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. We will see you all at 12:30. [Recess.] Mr. Cummings. Thank you all very much. Admiral Craine, can you briefly speak about the partnership that your college is establishing with the several maritime high schools? And can you indicate whether you believe ties between such high schools and the Nation's maritime colleges could be increased to create a seamless educational path to draw students from high schools to the maritime academies? Admiral Craine. Yes, sir, I would be happy to do that. The short answer to your question is yes. We are reaching out to these high schools to see what we can do to make it not only easier for these students to be able to come to our schools, but to get these students interested. As I mentioned in my testimony, recruiting is tough to try and convince a young 17 or 18 year old that life at sea and the maritime industry is something for them. One of the things that we're doing next Tuesday, I will be with Art Sulzer, Captain Sulzer, who will be testifying in the next panel, and his school that he represents in Philadelphia, the one that you mentioned_the Maritime Industries Academy in Baltimore_along with two others, on Tuesday to talk about what we can do to provide curriculum to their schools that will provide a broader overview of what the opportunities are, so that the students can actually get started before they come. Mr. Cummings. It seems like in other industries, there has been more of an effort to try to get to our kids at a young age, high school age. Why does it seem like we are a little behind with regard to this industry? Why do you think that is? Admiral Craine. I don't know if we are behind or whether these ideas of partnering, it is just a new, it is a great idea that we need, perhaps we could have been doing before. But we have realized that we need to reach out to high schools. And it is not just the rising seniors or those that are graduating, but we have to start at a younger age. When I was the chief of education and training for the Navy, when I was on active duty, we had a program called Starbase Atlantis, where we learned that it was at the fifth grade level, if we were going to attract youngsters to have an interest in the sciences and the math that we needed to get them at the fifth grade level. That was the knee in the curve, where you could get the biggest bang for the buck. And we are doing that on our campus and I know the others are as well. We have our oceanography, meteorology professors, science professors, working with elementary schools. Just two weeks ago we honored Eleanor Roosevelt Intermediate School from Washington Heights in Manhattan as one of those schools that has been working with us. And there are others. It is not something that is new to us, but the formal relationship we are finding is very helpful. We worked an agreement last week with Valley Forge Military Academy to accept any student that was accepted to their junior college, they have a high school and then a junior college. Any student that was accepted to their junior college would automatically be accepted to ours. Every day we are looking for new opportunities to establish these partnerships. We are really excited about the one that we are going to be talking about next week. We have three students from the Harbor School in Manhattan. They are freshmen, but they seem to be doing well, and we want more of them. Mr. Cummings. That is wonderful. Mr. Rodriguez, can you describe the extent to which the criminalization of mariners, you think, is affecting the recruitment? When I talked to the Admiral a little earlier in the first panel, he didn't seem to think that, well, I kind of got the impression that he didn't think that it was as bad as you make it sound in your testimony. Could you comment on that, please? Mr. Rodriguez. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Let me begin my answer by pointing out, what I have here is a report that was done back in May of 2002. I remember this effort because I was part of it, it was a very broad-based effort at coming up with some of the answers to the questions we are asking today in this hearing. And one of them is, one of the aspects of life at sea that, if I can take a moment to describe, these are very high level people from industry, from labor, from the Coast Guard, from the Maritime Administration, we all got together. We started at Kings Point in the spring of 2001. We had a number of meetings, things, as I recall, got a little overcome by the events of September 2001. But one of the aspects that this very broad-based group came up with, one of the problems that we had recruiting and retaining people into our industry, was criminalization. And that is in this report, and I would like to provide that for you. Over the years that I have been involved in the maritime industry, there has been more and more regulation put upon us. Mariners can be prosecuted under a number of different Federal statutes for discharging oil into the water, these are mainly environmental protection laws. And I can tell you that the level of morale on board ships has been affected. If you can imagine, it is not just the person who is being investigated or prosecuted directly who is affected; you have this whole mindset of the crew, particularly amongst the officers, that every time they go up that gangway, they may be liable for something that happens. So I hear about it. I worked at one time in the Merchant Marine Academy handling the training for a lot of the cadets who came through there. Some of the young graduates who had problems, they had an incident, would call me in my new job and say, I am thinking about getting out of the business: I got investigated. So it is affecting the morale of this industry. I would venture to say that it goes right from the inland people to the deep sea folks. Mr. Cummings. So we are looking into the ALJ situation and hopefully, that might be helpful in trying to address that issue. I want to go to you, Captain Beacom. In your testimony, you raised some very serious concerns about safety in the towing industry. You believe that manning, in particular, is often insufficient in part because the Coast Guard does not have adequate resources to ensure safety in the industry and in part because you believe management is essentially filtering information that passes to the Coast Guard through safety committees. Can you comment on how prevalent unsafe conditions you have described are in the towing industry? Captain Beacom. Well, a lot of it is based on the fact that they have cut the size of the crews to the point where it is impossible to operate safely. In 1988, I worked on a vessel that had a 10 man crew. That vessel is currently operating with a six man crew, doing exactly the same thing, and there is no automation that would lead to that downsizing. So you either have to come to the conclusion that the people that were operating the vessel in 1988 were idiots and they were paying four people not to do anything, or you have to come to the conclusion that those six people are now doing the work of ten. And any time you put that kind of an onerous workload on people, you decrease the amount of safety. Now, because of the fact that there is an onerous workload, the turnover changes. And I talked with people in both Dupont and Shell that say when you get more than a 20 percent turnover that any safety management program is nullified by the lack of knowledge within the group. And we have way more than a 20 percent turnover on the deck on most towboats. So if you had adequate manning, you would eliminate this. Not only would you eliminate it, you would level the playing field so those companies who bid jobs on the basis of inadequate manning would not have a financial advantage against those who are trying to do things right. Mr. Cummings. Thank you. Mr. LaTourette. Mr. LaTourette. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize that other responsibilities didn't let me listen to your testimony, but I read it before. Mr. Rodriguez, I want to pick up with where the Chairman was on the criminalization issue, because we did have a rather lengthy hearing on the administrative law judge process, and I came away convinced that the Chairman was on the right path. I am a big believer that people can accept results, even when they lose, as long as they think they have been treated fairly. You don't always win, but you have to be treated fairly. If criminalization is one of the findings of this group that got together in 2001, what do you think the answer is? Clearly, we can't have people dumping oil in the water, we can't have people getting drunk and running their boats into rocks and things like that. So what would be your observation, that we should look more to civil penalties? What do you think we need to do? Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. LaTourette, I believe the answer, well, I don't want to confuse the ALJ issue and this issue of criminalization. We appreciate your looking at that problem. We are hopeful that you will come out with the right solution. Criminalization is, let me start by saying, anyone who willfully or intentionally discharges oil into the water is a criminal. That is clearly against our environmental law, it is against the public good. It should not be protected. But accidents do happen, and they happen in this high risk maritime industry. What we object to is under some of the environmental statutes, we have strict liability for what occurs, whether it is an accident or not. I think looking at the way those statutes are applied and the effect on this workforce, and again, it is not that it is always a direct effect. It gets into people's minds, it gets into the way they do business. They get overly protective, the crew begins to split between the junior officers and the senior officers who are probably going to be on the hook for anything that happens. I think a step in the right direction, and it is in my testimony, one of my recommendations is that we separate the investigations for trying to get to the cause of an accident and possibly a criminal action later on, and insulate whatever we find out in an accident investigation from any criminal prosecution that may result. Mr. LaTourette. Well, I think that is a good idea. We just had a big train derailment in my district, and two agencies came in, actually the EPA wandered in too, but we had the FRA come in, NTSB came in. NTSB is tasked with figuring out what happened. Then FRA is tasked with figuring out whether somebody should be held accountable for breaking the rules. Is that the model that you are sort of pitching to us? Mr. Rodriguez. Yes. The work that we do at IMO is kind of heading in that direction. There is a code of practice, it is a very long title and I haven't really committed it to memory. But there was a code of practice for the disparate treatment of seafarers after a maritime accident. And it has some principles in there. And one of the principles is that one of the goals of the investigation is to determine what the cause was and to prevent those kinds of accidents happening in the future. If you don't have the criminal side and the accident investigation side separated, it is very difficult to get at that root cause. Mr. LaTourette. I would think that is right, because if the person believes that they are going to be on the hook criminally, they are going to clam up. I mean, why would you want to cooperate and sort of incriminate yourself potentially or provide some information to somebody that could be used against your penal interests? Mr. Rodriguez. It can be self-defeating, and the international maritime community is beginning to realize that. Mr. LaTourette. Okay, and is that included some place? I know you said this in your testimony, these recommendations you are talking about, are they written down some place? Could you send those to us? Mr. Rodriguez. I certainly will. If I need to clarify them, if I need to elaborate on them, I certainly will. Mr. LaTourette. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Just two questions. Mr. Annessa, you talked about the maritime industry's ability to recruit individuals from areas that are not near the water and that might in fact face a lack of local employment opportunities. What percentage of the people working for the member firms of the offshore marine service association live in areas that are not near the water and particularly in areas that are economically depressed? Can you give me some kind of ball park figure? Mr. Annessa. Yes, sir. I am not sure that without referring to our survey we could give you the exact componentry. Mr. Cummings. That is why I said ballpark. Mr. Annessa. I would suggest probably 75 percent of the mariners are in the coastal regions, the balance in the inland areas. I know that our particular company's case, when we look at our national demography, we have literally employees that live nearly every State in the Union, though the preponderance are in the Gulf States, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and then we have a high concentration in the Northeast, New York, Maine, and then in the Hampton Roads area, around Virginia, and then Florida. That seems to be the predominant locations where our workforce, and if it is indicative of a cross-section of the rest of the Country in our industry, then it would be probably appropriate. Seventy-five percent in the coastal areas, 25 percent in the inland areas. And one of the premises of our written testimony to attract mariners or candidates for employment in the marine industry in let's say inland or marginally employed areas would be to be more proactive in our communication of the opportunities that the industry affords potential prospects, particularly when a lot of the companies pay the transportation or provide a transportation allowance that allows the employee to cover the cost of moving back and forth to his assigned vessel from his home. It is a remarkable benefit in our industry that is available in very few others that I am aware of, with the possible exception of the airline industry where that travel is paid, or compensated to the employee to move from his location of domicile to his assigned vessel. Mr. Cummings. Do you worry about the future of these companies and their ability to get the employees they need? Does that concern you greatly? Mr. Annessa. It does concern me, sir, but it is not a grave concern. Because I do believe that we are on a momentum here that will, I hope, mitigate some of the busts and booms that our particular industry has experienced in recent years. We talk anecdotally about $80 per barrel oil as a motivator for continued investment by our particular client group in developing the offshore oil prospects in this Country. But our fleets are predominantly focused on an international capability, again, it is another great advantage that our industry affords, is that even if our vessels are not able to be employed in the U.S., those U.S.-flagged vessels can be employed in foreign locations and employ a certain complement of U.S. mariners. I think we are in a period at least for the foreseeable future of a prolonged opportunity for full employment. And with that momentum, I believe we will begin to attract new entrants into our business. The opportunities for a very predictable career path and the ability for an individual to attain a very well-paying job if he applies him or herself to achieving the credentialing that is needed is a very powerful and attractive for the candidates. Mr. Cummings. Can you tell me how much Offshore Marine Service Association generally spends on training their employees, and particularly for unlicensed mariners seeking to move ahead in their careers? Mr. Annessa. Yes, sir, approximately, unlicensed mariners from a greenfield start of what we would call an entry level employee that would be an ordinary seaman, we commit approximately $3,000 to $6,000 to take them through the STCW certification and get them proficient, for example, for the deck department to be a rating and performing part of a navigation watch, which is one of the certifications they require. Almost all of our member companies are bearing the cost of that themselves, reimbursing or paying for that training of those individual employees. The career path continues to move from that rating level to mate or in the case of the interim, to qualified man or chief engineer onto captain of the bridge. Commitment of training dollars over a six to ten year career path, which is necessary not only to accomplish the course work, but to achieve the sea time that is required, may result in a commitment by the companies of anywhere from $10,000 to as much as $40,000, depending on the standard of certification that is attained by the mariner. Now, certainly, we, like many of the other shipping companies under the U.S. registry, do try to seek candidates from the maritime academies, the State schools and Kings Point. They come with basically a third mate or third engineer's certification that they have earned through participation in the academic environment and the sea time they have achieved through those academies. But we also have to develop those mariners ourselves internally through what we call commonly the hawespipe, fellow, men and women that come up through the ranks to achieve those same certifications, at a cost either to themselves or generally borne by the companies that is not very much different than what they would pay or what the cost of an academy education might cost. Mr. Cummings. Thank you all very much. Mr. Tellez, nobody asked you a question, did you just need to say something? Go ahead and say it. We definitely want to hear you. Mr. Tellez. I would invite you all to Piney Point so you can see first-hand what happens down there in terms of training and certification. Come on down. Mr. Cummings. I have been there, but I will come back. Mr. Tellez. I would invite the rest of the Committee. Mr. Cummings. All right. Thank you very much. Our third and final panel, and I want to thank everybody for waiting around, we really appreciate it, Captain Arthur Sulzer, a Board Member with the Maritime Academy High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Captain Jeff Slesinger, the Director of Safety and Training with Western Towboat Company; and Berit Eriksson, Former Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Maritime Consortium. Mr. Sulzer. TESTIMONY OF CAPTAIN ARTHUR H. SULZER, USN (RETIRED), BOARD MEMBER, MARITIME ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL; CAPTAIN JEFF SLESINGER, WESTERN TOWBOAT COMPANY, CHAIRPERSON, COMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC PLANNING, PACIFIC MARINE TOWING INDUSTRY PARTNERS; BERIT ERIKSSON, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PACIFIC COAST MARITIME CONSORTIUM Captain Sulzer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members, it is a great pleasure to appear before this Committee. I am Captain Art Sulzer, a second generation mariner whose father served as a merchant marine officer in World War II. I have been in this industry my whole life and I have witnessed first-hand the effects of America's decline as a shipbuilder and ship- operating Nation. As one of the focuses of this hearing is shortness of mariners, I actually find that heartening that this may portend a change in our industry and some future growth. I am going to principally discuss maritime education at the entry and crew level, where our greatest shortages appear. My paper, which you have, is five sections. I am going to skip and just cover the last three in an effort to save time. Most people are familiar with mariner training such as the cabin boy serving tea on the Titanic, the powder monkeys serving cannon balls to gunners in movies such as Master and Commander. This is the impression many Americans have of maritime training, and they were right. It is a hands-on training, although it has changed quite a bit since those days. Today's mariner needs to be highly trained, needs to be dedicated and motivated. This applies to all positions on board ships, not just the master. That is what I want to address. Many of my colleagues today talked about current issues and problems. I would basically echo those: aging workforce, compensation issues, documentation, renewal problems. But the one area that was not talked about today that I want to focus on is our maritime heritage. This is not talked about very often. It is most overlooked, and unfortunately, the American public has largely forgotten that we are an island nation, dependent on waterborne commerce for most of our goods and services. Now, traditionally, American mariners have come from the European nations and certain areas of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. For the most part, they were also largely immigrants. Policies in the 1990s and security requirements have cut off the source of mariners. I believe we need to create a new generation of mariners in this Country with a tradition of maritime seafaring. And I believe that the group will come from our under-served urban students in America's cities, which can use this program as an opportunity to escape poverty and to find their ways to good, meaningful careers. That is what I think the maritime high school movement is about. Specifically in maritime education, I got involved in 2003 as a board member opening a charter school in Philadelphia. We opened with 125 students. As of this year, we now have 700 and we have a waiting list of over 300 students. We will graduate our first seniors this year. Along with that, I was also completing my doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, and because of my involvement, I took the opportunity to start to conduct research on this growing movement. When I thought I had one school, lo and behold, I found there are over 16 in the Country and growing. My research specifically is entitled Maritime Tactile Education for Under-Served Urban Students in America: Sailing to Success. Presently there are 16 maritime middle and high schools around the Country that are about 350 to 400 students. What I have done in working with these schools, I have grouped them into a couple of categories. The first thing is program style, how they conduct their training. There is the integrated method, vocational, apprentice and academic. The other way that I group these schools is by program type; what type of outcome do they desire. We have general maritime studies, which is a broad program; industry-specific, such as fishing, marina, tug barge; company-specific, where a particular company takes an interest in a school looking for future employees, and lastly regional. I have given examples of some of these fine schools in my paper. What I would like to talk about is how we can help these schools succeed. Now, to help them, you have to see some of the positive outcomes. This has been parent-student interest, the graduation rates are up, comportment and student behavior has increased as a result of the maritime programs, academic grades have come up, and graduation upon employment. You have asked me to come, I hope that I have excited you. I have some suggestions for you on how you can help. These suggestions include promotion of conferences on maritime education, development of grant programs on maritime regional awareness, video materials, review of aid restrictions which impact apprentice programs, continuation of maritime vocational training, encourage Federal agencies to continue to work with the maritime schools and create and fund a national cooperative research program in marine transportation to serve as a conduit and a source for these efforts and increase public awareness. I see a positive future in maritime education and I am encouraged by the results we have seen in our own school and I hope this will be a continuing trend. Thank you, gentlemen. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Captain Slesinger? Captain Slesinger. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the Washington State Skill Panel, I want to thank you for inviting us to speak about how we are currently dealing with the personnel crisis in the towing industry. I am Captain Jeff Slesinger, Chairperson of the Skill Panels Committee on Strategic Planning. I am also a working tugboat captain and Director of Safety and Training for Western Towboat. Western Towboat is a family- owned tug and barge company located in Seattle. We, as well as other west coast tug and barge companies, provide a vital transportation link between ports on the west coast and Alaska. There are many communities in Alaska where the only means of transporting critical supplies is with a tug and barge. Our work is diverse and essential. We move 600 foot tank barges filled with petroleum products; we tow freight barges stacked with containers; we tow ocean-going barges carrying rail cars on deck. We do this year-round through Pacific storms and Alaskan winters. I can tell you from my own personal experience that this work is challenging and very rewarding. But frankly, we have serious concerns about our ability to crew vessels today and in the future. We face challenges on all fronts: recruitment, training and retention of competent and qualified mariners. The Skill Panel's success in meeting those challenges is a result of a highly-organized, non-partisan collaboration between business, education, labor and the local workforce and economic development councils. The one word I hope you associate with our success and our testimony today is partnership. We found solutions by partnering with government and industry resources. And we would like the Federal Government to play a larger role in that partnership. Over the past two years, our skill panel has developed two highly effective and efficient partnership models that have a record of demonstrated success. The first is the Skill Panel itself. The catalyst for the panel's formation is the same fundamental personnel problem we share with the rest of the towing and marine transportation industry. We have good family wage jobs. We have people who want those jobs. What we don't have is a clear, coordinated career path. We don't have good answers to the man or woman who is on a dock and asks, how can I get a job on one of those tugs? What kind of training do I need and where can I get it? Although these are simple questions, the process of developing simple answers is more complex. This is because the source of these answers lies in different sectors. Industry, Government and educational institutions all house partial solutions. What is needed is an organization that connects these sectors, takes partial solutions and makes them whole. This is the primary role of our Washington State Skill Panel. The second example of the successful approach is our support of the Workboat Mate Vocational Apprenticeship Program. In 2005, the Pacific Maritime Institute, located in Seattle, pioneered this approach for towing vessels. This program provides a defined career pathway to the level of mate. At the end of the two year process, we have an individual who has confidence in his skills, because he has already put them to work in an on the job environment. The Coast Guard has confidence that this individual has met not just the certifying standard, but the intent of that standard. And the companies have confidence that this individual has been trained to a common, accepted standard, one that works in practice, not just on paper. The program's success is a direct result of a partnership between an individual cadet, the Coast Guard, the towing industry and the maritime training center. All bring commitment to the process, and all reap the rewards. The benefit of this program goes far beyond the original partners. The local communities have gained an individual whose family wage job contributes to the local and regional economies. He or she helps ensure that a critical link in the region's transportation network continues to function in a safe and effective manner. This is truly an example of how a rising tide floats all boats. This type of coordinated effort is readily available to other regions and could be expanded to all sea-going positions on tugs. However, funding for the Skill Panel will soon run out unless new Government resources are made available. Mr. Chairman, we very much appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. Our Skill Panel stands ready to work as a contributing partner with this Committee and other Federal agencies. Together, we can create clear, viable pathways for training qualified individuals seeking a career in the towing industry. Thank you. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Captain. Ms. Eriksson? Ms. Eriksson. Good afternoon, Chairman Cummings and Members of the Subcommittee. My name is Berit Eriksson, and I hold an endorsement as an Able Seaman Unlimited and I am a member of the Sailor's Union of the Pacific. As a working mariner and maritime workforce development specialist, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee on the education and workforce development challenges facing the United States maritime industry. The U.S. Merchant Marine is diverse and its workforce problems are complex. I am convinced that mariner workforce development solutions must be as diverse as our industry. I want to primarily address and suggest a potential solution to the problem of the financial challenges facing merchant mariners as they attempt to advance upwards through the maritime career ladder. Commonly known as the hawespipe, it speaks to the difficult transformation of unlicensed mariners into licensed mariners. First, some background which speaks to the finding of solutions through partnerships. In 2001, the Pacific Coast Maritime Consortium, or the PCMC, was created to meet the immediate training needs brought on by the then-looming 2002 deadline of the STCW Convention. It was a multi-State partnership approach encompassing Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii, and included five maritime unions and six maritime employers. From 2001 to 2006, the PCMC worked to ensure that qualified U.S. mariners were available in sufficient numbers for the maritime sectors of the West Coast region. During this period, it became clear that the advancement from unlicensed to licensed mariner positions was practically eliminated as a result of the new regulations. We could not accept that, and the Consortium turned to addressing the issue. As you may be aware, the STCW Convention had created certain unfunded training and certification mandates, which seriously impacted the ability of the industry to meet licensing requirements. Through a grant funded project, we found that it took a little more than two years for an unlicensed mariner working in the towing industry to complete all the certifications required for a third mate towing license at the approximate cost of $16,000 just for the courses. That is not counting travel and room and board expenses. Most working mariners find this too daunting a financial hurdle to career advancement. This is a cause for grave concern for when we consider that approximately 95 percent of the mates and masters in the U.S. offshore and coastways towing sector have come through the hawsepipe. To develop solutions to these challenges, the PCMC hosted several regional maritime roundtable meetings in Alaska, Hawaii, California and Washington with the Skills Panel, where there emerged a strong consensus on the concept of the maritime education loan program. It is modeled after the existing and successful Teachers Educational Forgivable Loan program. The program would provide unlicensed mariners with the means to pursue higher certification by vaulting the financial obstacles by a Government loan that is forgivable only upon demonstration of long-term commitment to the industry. With this in mind, we drafted sample legislative language as a possible solution to the financial challenges of advancing in a maritime career. The main points of the concept are: the program would be administered by the Maritime Administration; to encourage retention, the loan would be forgiven if the mariner completes 36 months of sea time; the loan may not exceed a lifetime total of $60,000; the loan may be used for tuition, travel to and from training facilities, room and board, books, loan guarantee fees and other required fees. The loan program would initially be a five year pilot project. The training institutions would be chosen based on geographic diversity, their ability to administer a Federal program and their possession of appropriate U.S. Coast Guard- approved sites, courses and instructors. Student eligibility would be based on their holding a valid merchant marine document, committing to completing the course of instruction and serving as a merchant marine officer or unlicensed mariner upon the completion of the course of instruction. The appropriate office for administration of the loan program would be the Office of Maritime Workforce Development within the Maritime Administration. This office should also be the site for other innovative workforce development programs that need to be integrated with the U.S. Coast Guard regulatory requirements. One such program could be a Secretary's discretionary grant program, which exists in Labor, and it would well here, I think, which could fund maritime workforce demonstration projects such as multi-State training projects, demographic and industry needs research projects, entry level enrichment programs and youth school-to-career programs. In conclusion, I would like to thank you again for this opportunity to present some possible solutions for recruitment, training and retention challenges facing the merchant mariners and the maritime industry today. Mr. Cummings. Thank you all very much. Mr. Slesinger, tell me, how difficult is it for a young person who is not a member of a union to get the training they need to move ahead in the maritime industry? Captain Slesinger. Right now, it is I would say a matter of circumstance. For instance, for a non-union company, such as ourselves, if you approached us, some of our best employees are those that have no background and are basically walking up and applying. But what has to happen is a relationship has to develop between that company and that individual where it is a mentor relationship, it carries them through the process. Because there really is no formalized structure or organization that could lead that person through there. So it is very dependent on the companies they contact and it is very dependent on the type of relationship they can establish with that company. Mr. Cummings. Captain Sulzer, you were talking about how you went from, in Philadelphia, I think you said, from 125 students to 700, is that right? Captain Sulzer. That is correct, sir. Mr. Cummings. One of the things that I, what I have tried to figure out is that when I look at the Baltimore school, I think we have a lot of students coming, and some of them genuinely have an interest in maritime. Many of them are just looking for a decent school to go to where they are going to feel safe and feel as if there is learning taking place. I hate to even say that, but it is true. So I am trying to figure, and because of that, they have had a tremendous success rate in the five or six years they have been there. I don't think it has so much necessarily to do with the curriculum. I think that is going to change, though, and I think that what is going to happen is that the curriculum is going to drive it. I think Baltimore will have a problem in the next two or three years if not, probably less than that, with a waiting list of people trying to get into this school. What do you see as the problems you have seen so far with the schools you have been involved with? How easy or difficult is it to create a curriculum that truly trains them to go into the maritime industry and do you get the impression that a lot of these young people are basically going to these schools, like I said, to get a decent education, not necessarily going into the industry? And I am sure there are advantages of just having that knowledge, even if they never go into the industry, many of them will go on to college, and may not want to go the route of the industry. What do you see are the problems and what do you see is attracting young people to the Philadelphia school? Captain Sulzer. You are correct, a good, safe school is the first attraction to the school, since these students don't know what maritime is, as I mentioned before. Our job is, once they get there, to fire up an interest. We chose to start at fifth grade. As Admiral Craine said, the difference in education in fourth and fifth grade, a student goes from being fed education to eating education on their own. So we chose an earlier model to get these kids interested. In our early program, grades five to nine is what I call the song of the sea, where we take maritime and we infuse it in all the regular subjects. Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower; that is the last most of us ever hear of the Mayflower. It is a ship, it had to navigate. So we start to infuse this at the early grades to get them interested in our programs when they move into ninth grade. Now, I can give a concrete example of how maritime actually helps these students improve. One particular school that has been around for a while, again, most of these schools have only opened since 2000, so the track record is short. Mar Vista, which is in the San Diego area, has had a long partnership with the Military Sealift Command. They have had a maritime program for five years and they have graduates. What they started to show me the data is that, again, in most of these inner-cities schools, if you show up and go to class, you are going to pass. That is not true every place else. What happened in this school is, the students, because of Coast Guard requirements for training and passing and documentation, they had to do more than show up in the maritime classes to get by. And an amazing thing happened: they worked hard. When they went back to their regular classes in the afternoon, the brain didn't get shut off. And lo and behold, what started to come up was English, science and the other courses. Because what they learned by making the commitment to maritime, which they made, we didn't force them, is they learned their own skills and they started to develop. That is what really excites me. I will be honest, at the end of the day, if not a single graduate of Maritime Academy Charter School works on the water, but everyone graduates, we hit a home run. Because you know graduation rates inner city. I have to say that as an educator. But I am fully convinced that a percentage of those students will go into maritime, and as they come back to the neighborhoods, which they can do, because of transportation, they will talk to their fellow neighbors and that will grow. We have 300 on the waiting list right now. So I am convinced this works and I have seen it. Mr. Cummings. One of the interesting things, I have visited the Maritime Academy in Baltimore on several occasions. But my last visit, I so happened to get there when the former marine chief warrant officer, Officer Williams, was drilling these students and teaching them to march. And I was just amazed that these kids were doing it. It sort of blew me away that everybody was in line, and he has his marine uniform on. And the reason why I raise that is you talk about the quasi-military nature, and if you have a quasi-military component there, that it helps with behavior. I kind of saw that, I saw kids that were, I think, I get the impression that they almost want the discipline, they almost want the structure. And I can hardly wait to see them in their uniforms. That, I am sure, will be an even greater boost. In Baltimore, as many districts are dealing with, we are dealing with gangs and the phenomenon of gangs. We are finding that there are certain things that attract kids to gangs, it is the discipline, it is the family, it is the belonging, things of that nature. When I talk to some of these kids and ask them why do they like the kids, a lot of the very things that other kids tell me attract them to gangs, the identical types of things that attract them to the school, that closeness, that discipline, somebody looking over your shoulder, people going in the same direction that you are going in. Now, of course the gangs are going negative, the Academy is going positive. Could you comment on that, please? Captain Sulzer. I agree with you. In fact, I just spoke with the lieutenant colonel who runs Western Maritime School up in Buffalo. He and I were talking, and he was about ready to pull his hair out, because he has been there about two years. I said, stay the course. It is going to be rough the first couple of years. I had to sit on discipline boards and everything else, and I felt like Captain Blye sometimes. But you go through a learning curve where those who are going to get with the program stick with it, and then that number swells and those that aren't going to get with the program leave. Once you turn the corner, the momentum grows. One program we talked about is typically, you give out demerits for bad behavior. Well, we talked about giving out doubloons as a reward. We ignore the 90 percent of the kids who sit there and want to learn and we focus on the 10 percent. So what I've been advocating is we give out doubloons for making the grade. Everybody knows doubloons, pirates, et cetera. This is what the kids like. You earn these doubloons for good grades and good behavior, and you redeem them at the end of the month. How about some positive rewards instead of negative? So I agree with you. But the schools will go through a learning curve and then they will turn the corner and it is only going to get better. That is the message I am trying to get out there. Mr. Cummings. This is my last question. Is there something unique about maritime, say a maritime curriculum in achieving the things that you and I just talked about, as opposed to perhaps a medical type curriculum, preparing them for medical school, preparing them for other types of things? Is there something very unique about maritime that would cause that kind of effect that we are now talking about? Captain Sulzer. Well, as I said, we are an island nation. We all got here by a boat a long time ago. And it is something I believe that people thrive on. When I go to meetings, parents come up to me, they want to know how to get their kids involved. They don't know anything about it, it ignites something in people. I can't put my finger on it. I guess it is just the way we are in this Country. But it is awareness, and it is very important to get the parents involved at an early stage, and maritime will bring them to a meeting. They like it, and that is critical. Mr. Cummings. Yes, Ms. Eriksson? Ms. Eriksson. Mr. Cummings, when I was working with the Pacific Coast Maritime Consortium, we did have a grant that funded Mar Vista High School, partially. So I was the project coordinator down in San Diego at the time. And the kids were going to school in the building I was in. And in answer to you, what was one of the things about the curriculum that really got them, and strangely enough, because I was a working mariner, this happens on a ship, the kids who were like the engine kids and the kids who were like the deck kids, they called them the black gang and the knuckle draggers. They identified with being marines. They had that, as you said, that identity like they are not in the gang any more. But now they are like deckies or they are like the black gang. And they take great pride in that. So I think that is part of what happens within that curriculum. Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much. Mr. LaTourette. Mr. LaTourette. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank all of you for your testimony. Captain Sulzer, is the Mar Vista program the oldest of the 16 that you have laid out in your testimony? Captain Sulzer. No, it is not. It is the most focused, specifically for direct employment upon graduation. Actually, some of the schools go back into 1991. But one of the things is, and I have kind of put them together, I have to clarify, there are maritime schools and there are marine. They are different. Marine schools have typically been around a little bit longer, there are several in Florida. Marine deals with the sciences and biology and oceanography. Maritime is a fairly new phenomenon. And they can work together and they can work in concert, and some schools actually have both programs. So Mar Vista is focused on marine employment, deep sea, and has a partnership particularly with MSE. Mr. LaTourette. And did you indicate that Mar Vista actually has graduated a class? Captain Sulzer. Yes, sir, they have. Mr. LaTourette. And I know that the Chairman was talking about something that is of great interest to me, and that is, I think it is wonderful to get graduation rates up and so forth and so on, but if we are dealing with people actually going into the business, is there any data available based on that graduating class of how many kids chose to make maritime a career? Captain Sulzer. There is, sir. I don't have it in front of me. It is not great, but it is there. And I guess one indication is, I have people looking for our seniors that haven't even graduated yet. So there is a large interest from employers. And again, I tell employers, I used to be head of personnel at a company. People leave because they don't like your company. You need to start a partnership early on. The one comment that was made today, I will just take a brief moment to mention, is the cost of mariner training. What I have said to marine employers is, you will spend $6,000 to $10,000 on an unknown walking in off the street. How about you give me $1,000 for my ninth graders and get to know them for four years and build a relationship? That ninth grader is going to stick with you. That is a much better investment than throwing money out at unknowns. That is what I think is a big help. Mr. LaTourette. I think that is exactly right, and that goes into what I want to talk to Captain Slesinger about, and that is apprenticeship programs. Do these 16 institutions that you have put in your testimony have apprenticeship programs as part of their curriculum or no? Captain Slesinger. Some do. One issue that has just come up, which I mention in my comments, which was unknown to me, I started working as a mariner with the Corps of Engineers when I was 16. Apparently in the 1980s, some changes were made in the labor laws that preclude young people, before the age of 18, from working in the marine field. This is a particular problem. I had KC Shipping offer me four full-term internships this summer for our eleventh graders, and I couldn't get the students involved because of that. Now, maybe something can be done to exempt an apprentice program which is structured and looked at, rather than direct employment. But most juniors are not going to be 18. And it is a problem that is just starting to show up. Mr. LaTourette. Is that a State law or is that a Federal law? Captain Slesinger. I believe it is Federal. I am working with some DOL people on that to get a little more information. But that just came out of left field for us. Mr. LaTourette. Captain Slesinger, the apprenticeship programs that you were describing in your testimony indicated that their success is really determinative based upon the company buy-in. And are you finding, because of shortages, because of new training requirements, are you finding companies willing to make that buy-in? Are they eager to do that? Captain Slesinger. Yes. Yes, companies are very eager to do that. I think their problem is finding the right vehicle to do it. That is why, in the towing industry, I do not believe that you could have a successful training program unless you involve the companies. These are hands-on jobs and you need people to be out there working with their hands and working on the vessels. We heard earlier testimony that one of the problems with the Academy is the lack of ships. There are many, many tugboats around which could use apprentices and start that training process. But that is key to their success. Mr. LaTourette. This reminds me, I have a lot of folks in the machine business back in Ohio. Most of them are first or second generation people who came from Eastern Europe, most of them are 50, 60, up in years. Like you, they are having trouble attracting young people to make that a career path. Some of the most successful recruitment efforts that I have seen are based upon fellows that have apprenticeship programs, teaching them that it is actually a good career, it can be a rewarding career. Ms. Eriksson, there has been a lot of talk today about the cost of STWC standards, and you mentioned it, some others mentioned it. I think you mentioned $16,000, I think one of our earlier witnesses said $20,000, and maybe they put in the room and board that you said wasn't included in your figure. I have two questions before I get to your loan proposal. Have these higher standards resulted in a safer maritime working environment, in your opinion? Sometimes we make rules that don't mean much, even when you follow them. Ms. Eriksson. As an unlicensed mariner in like the basic safety training, et cetera, I do believe they have made it safer, especially when I worked for the Alaska Marine Highway in the steward's department, they never drilled that with fire and et cetera. So I found that to be highly of value. I think when you get into the higher levels, I don't know, because I am not an officer, I am an unlicensed mariner, but just anecdotally, I think some of it became a little too highly regulated. But you have to meet the convention. Mr. LaTourette. Right. And my observation is there is some basic stuff, we had a hearing on marine safety and we had some captains in that indicated when they drilled, they had turnout suits that didn't fit, because somebody got a little chubbier than they used to be when they first got the suit. So there is some basic stuff, like CPR and lifesaving, things like that. But let me talk to you about your loan proposal, because I am intrigued. I happen to be a big supporter, I think the Chairman probably is, too, that we do recognize in certain industries, we have a national interest in promoting employment in those industries. So we do it, you mentioned teachers, I think we do it with nurses, we do it with physicians. And it is to make sure that under-served areas have the opportunity to be served by health care professionals or teachers, as the case may be. I understood what your proposal is. Do you think that it needs to be for the entire Country or should we target it towards particular areas that are having difficulty recruiting and maintaining merchant mariners? Ms. Eriksson. In my opinion, it should be a national program, as it would be, then, within MARAD. Because the issues in Alaska are often the same issues as in Florida or in the Gulf Coast and Seattle in terms of the coast-wise, and that is all around the Country, the hawsepipe issue. Though it is designed to even be usable to somebody who wants to get their AB and tankerman, which could cost $5,000. So I think, but as a pilot project, I think you should target geographically the areas where there is the most need. Mr. LaTourette. Let me ask you just this $16,000 or $20,000 or whatever it is, is it your experience and observation that that cost is completely borne by the person who wants to receive that certification? Or do the companies help? Ms. Eriksson. Often a company can help or a union can help. But in terms of like when you are hawsepiping the unlicensed union doesn't necessarily want to pay for you to become licensed and vice versa. Also the traditional independence of mariners, they tend to want to move around. So there are quite a few mariners that will want to get this on their own, or that used to get them on their own with a minimum of expense to get their license and that is all shut down. So you would have to almost indenture yourself, in a way, to get what you needed. Mr. LaTourette. And is it your observation, just so I am clear, that the STWC stuff has taken it from it didn't cost too much to get your license? Is it all in STWC that takes us up to the $16,000, $20,000? Ms. Eriksson. My understanding is that the STWC certifications requirements for between AB and mate, it is like flashing lights and stability, et cetera, and GMDSs. I base the $16,000 on what the Pacific Maritime Institute was charging at the time. Mr. LaTourette. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cummings. Just one last question, Ms. Eriksson. Let's talk about women in the industry. What challenges do we have with regard to getting women in this industry? I am just curious. Ms. Eriksson. From when I started, when it was hell, to now---- Mr. Cummings. Say that again? Ms. Eriksson. It was hell in the beginning, in the 1970s. But the situation has really changed. It is much better. The academies are turning out really good women officers and stuff. And something I want to not only in terms of women, I want to bring up in terms of this meeting is, we have spent a lot of time talking about officers, where 75 percent of the workforce is unlicensed. That is where the challenges were for women in the past, especially in the engine room. But that is changing a lot. And some of these programs, like the high school programs, Mar Vista and others, the girls, high school girls, they are doing really well. There are girls coming out of those high school classes, too. It has improved quite a bit. It can get better. It is not as unpleasant any more. There is a lot more acceptance. Mr. Cummings. Thank you all very much. This ends this hearing. 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