[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3305-S3306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SHIPPING REFORM

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I am going to take the 2 or 3 minutes 
we have before we begin the debate on the Gorton amendment just to 
familiarize my colleagues with the bill that is before us, the Ocean 
Shipping Reform Act of 1998, and give an overview of the bill.
  This is something that I think has been a long time coming. What we 
are trying to do is open our ports and give our carriers and our 
shippers more of an opportunity to compete with foreign competitors 
where they have been at a disadvantage in the past because our markets 
were so open that they were transparent in their contracts to the 
extent that many shippers would go to foreign carriers in order to 
escape the requirement to have so much openness and on the other hand 
carriers would be able to compete at a disadvantage to our shippers 
because they knew everything about a contract and they could undercut 
that contract.
  So it has not been a good situation. Particularly our ports that are 
near Canada or are near Mexico have felt a loss of business because of 
the competition from the foreign carriers. What we are trying to do is 
level the playing field for American shippers, American carriers, and 
try to help American ports get more of the business, which we think, of 
course, would create more jobs for our port cities.
  So what we tried to do was balance the interests. We want 
transparency. We want openness. But we also want to allow the privacy 
of contracting to the extent that shippers and carriers can make 
contracts which they ought to be able to do privately, and as long as 
everything is open in competition it should be an open marketplace.

[[Page S3306]]

  I would not say this is a perfect bill. Certainly nothing we ever 
pass is just the way we would pass it if we alone wrote it. But we are 
not alone. We have 100 Members. We have a Commerce Committee that 
debated this bill, that worked on it for a long time. In fact, we have 
been working on it for 2 years, and it has been a compromise bill. But 
I think everyone will be better off as a result of this effort.
  I appreciate the support of the Commerce Committee. It has been a 
major achievement for the Commerce Committee. I appreciate the work of 
Senator Lott, our majority leader, who is very interested in this 
matter. I appreciate the work of Senator Gorton and Senator Breaux, 
both of whom have worked very diligently to try to hone the balance in 
this bill.
  Senator Gorton has an amendment. There was one part of the bill that 
he felt needed changing. So he is going to debate that amendment. I 
think the bill should pass as it is because I think the balancing has 
been done.
  So with that, I will yield the floor. I know we have a unanimous 
consent agreement that at 9:40 we will begin the debate on the Gorton 
amendment. And Senator Breaux will be arguing on the other side for the 
committee.
  Thank you, Mr. President.

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