[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10721-S10722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-544. A resolution adopted by the Council of the City of 
     Cincinnati, Ohio, relative to proposed legislation on 
     children's gun violence; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
       POM-545. A resolution adopted by the Legislature of Guam; 
     to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

                           Resolution No. 303

       Whereas, historically the United States has protected its 
     shipping industry through maritime cabotage laws, including 
     Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly known 
     as the Jones Act, the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 
     and the statutes referring to towage and dredging; and
       Whereas, these maritime cabotage laws strictly limit the 
     carriage of passengers and merchandise between the U.S. 
     mainlaind and the offshore jurisdictions of Guam, Hawaii, 
     Alaska, and Puerto Rico to United States built and flag 
     ships, which are crewed, owned and controlled by United 
     States citizens; and
       Whereas, Ninety Percent (90%) of the goods consumed in Guam 
     are imported and virtually all of these goods arrive by sea; 
     and
       Whereas, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are similarly 
     dependent on ocean shipping for the operation of their 
     economies; and
       Whereas, there are only 122 deep-draft, self-propelled 
     ships of 1,000 gross registered tons and over in the active 
     oceangoing domestic commercial fleet of the United States 
     with an average age of 31 years, of which 89 are tankers. 
     While in the world fleet there are more than 25,000 deep-
     draft, oceangoing ships with an average age of 18 years. The 
     world fleet includes many kinds of specialist ships not 
     available in the domestic United States fleet yet needed for 
     transportation in the domestic non-contiguous trades and 
     economic development in the offshore jurisdictions of the 
     United States; and
       Whereas, due to their geographic isolations, the offshore 
     jurisdictions are uniquely dependent on ocean shipping for 
     surface transportation, unlike the forty-eight contiguous 
     states that have access to alternative forms of interstate 
     surface transportation including rail, road, and inland 
     waterways; and
       Whereas, maritime cabotage laws of the United States 
     severely and unfairly limit the access to needed shipping 
     services by artificially restricting the supply of ships, 
     which is translated into higher freight rates and the non-
     availability of certain kinds of carriage for the offshore 
     jurisdictions; and
       Whereas, the U.S. domestic fleet is continuing to decline, 
     only one containership has been built in the United States 
     during the past decade, and just last year, the privately-
     owned, United States flag, deep-draft fleet decreased by 29 
     vessels and the fleet carrying capacity decreased by 
     1,358,000 deadweight tons; and
       Whereas, the offshore American jurisdictions need access to 
     efficient, competitive and modern shipping to compete in the 
     global economy, especially as competing countries have ready 
     access to the world's shipping fleet for their transportation 
     requirements; and
       Whereas, the highly-competitive Transpacific containership 
     trade offers some of the lowest deep-water ocean freight rate 
     in the world, especially Westbound from the United States 
     West Coast to Asia, while the rates from the U.S. Mainland to 
     Guam are some of the highest. With more that two dozen 
     regularly scheduled lines, there has long been excess 
     capacity available Westbound in the Transpacific container 
     trade to promptly carry all of Guam and Hawaii's cargo 
     requirements at internationally competitive rates; and
       Whereas, while there are over 5,000 bulk carriers in the 
     world fleet, there are none in the domestic United States 
     fleet available to carry Alaskan coal to the United States 
     West Coast, Hawaii, and Guam, which impedes the utilization 
     of a potential domestic fuel source; and
       Whereas, while there are over 6,000 tankers in the world 
     fleet averaging 16 years of age, there are only 89 in the 
     domestic United States fleet averaging over 30 years. The 
     United States International Trade Commission reports that 
     domestic tanker freight rates are double world rates; and
       Whereas, in the trade between Guam and the mainland, over 
     96 percent of all liner and neo-bulk cargoes are carried by 
     self-propelled oceangoing ships of over 1,000 gross 
     registered tons, and all interstate petroleum cargoes in the 
     Guam trade are carried by deep-draft tanker ships; and
       Whereas, an important driver of the high costs of living 
     and doing business in Guam is the artificial domestic 
     shortage of deep-draft oceangoing ships and the higher cost 
     of domestic shipping imposed by maritime cabotage laws; and
       Whereas, such costs and non-availability of deep-draft 
     oceangoing ships impose a significant and unfair burden on 
     the residents of Guam, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico; and
       Whereas, the offshore jurisdictions suffer a far greater 
     negative impact from the restrictions of the maritime 
     cabotage laws of the United States than do the contiguous 
     states; and
       Whereas, an exemption from the cabotage laws allowing 
     foreign ships to participate in the non-contiguous trades 
     would foster competition in ocean shipping services, provide 
     substantial economic benefits to the offshore jurisdictions, 
     increase consumer welfare, and make the offshore economies 
     more globally competitive; and
       Whereas, the President and Congress have already recognized 
     the unique aspects of the other offshore American 
     jurisdictions when they exempted American Samoa, the 
     Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. 
     Virgin Islands from the applicability of the maritime 
     cabotage laws; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Twenty-Fourth Guam Legislature 
     respectfully requests the Congress of the United States to 
     pass legislation granting an exemption from the maritime 
     cabotage laws of the United States to benefit Guam, Hawaii, 
     Alaska, and Puerto Rico, to allow:
       (1) Foreign flag vessels to engage in the interstate sector 
     only of the noncontiguous

[[Page S10722]]

     trades under the supervision of the United States Customs 
     service, and, in Guam, in coordination with the Guam Customs 
     and Quarantine Agency; and
       (2) Foreign built United States flag vessels to freely 
     engage in the interstate and intrastate sectors of the non-
     contiguous trades under a coastwise (non-contiguous) 
     endorsement; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Twenty-Fourth Guam Legislature 
     respectfully requests the President of the United States and 
     his Administration to support the Congressional request in 
     this Resolution; and be it further
       Resolved, That Guam's Congressional Delegate request 
     Congress to exempt Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico from 
     maritime cabotage; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Speaker certify to, and the Legislative 
     Secretary attests, the adoption hereof and that copies of the 
     same be thereafter transmitted to the President of the United 
     States; to the President of the United States Senate; to the 
     Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; to the 
     Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation; 
     to the Guam Congressional Delegate; and to the Honorable Carl 
     T.C. Gutierrez, Maga'lahen Guahan.
       Duly and regularly adopted on the 29th day of July, 1998.
                                  ____

       POM-546. A resolution adopted by the House of the 
     Legislature of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
     Islands; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

                       House Resolution No. 11-87

       Whereas, 48 USCS, Section 1694(a) establishes a federal 
     District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands; and
       Whereas, 48 USCS, Section 1694(b) directs that the 
     President of the United States with the advice and consent of 
     the United States Senate shall appoint a Judge for the 
     District Court of the Mariana Islands; and
       Whereas, the term of office for the Judge appointed to the 
     District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands is ten years; 
     and
       Whereas, it is a tradition and practice of the United 
     States that an appointee to a District Court in a state 
     normally comes from that state; and
       Whereas, judges who serve in the Northern Mariana Islands 
     need to be familiar with the unique cultures, customs and 
     traditions of the people of the Northern Mariana Islands; 
     now, therefore be it
       Resolved, by the House of Representatives, Eleventh 
     Northern Mariana Commonwealth Legislature, That the House 
     calls upon the Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern 
     Mariana Islands, and the Washington Representative to 
     petition the President and the U.S. Senate so that all future 
     candidates for appointment to the District Court for the 
     Northern Mariana Islands should be nominated from among the 
     qualified people of the Northern Mariana Islands who are 
     familiar with the unique languages, cultures, customs and 
     traditions of the people of the Northern Mariana Islands; and 
     be it further
       Resolved, That the Speaker of the House shall certify and 
     the House Clerk shall attest to the adoption of this 
     resolution and thereafter transmit copies to the President of 
     the United States, the President of the U.S. Senate, the 
     Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, and to the 
     Washington Representative of the Northern Mariana Islands.
       Adopted by the House of Representatives on August 26, 1998.

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