[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H8465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PASSENGER VESSEL ACT

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the 
domestic deep-sea passenger cruise industry, or better, the lack of it 
in the United States.
  Currently, there is only one ocean-going cruise ship left in the 
entire U.S. flag fleet. That means that millions of dollars of American 
tourist money which are spent on cruises each year are going to our 
foreign competitors.
  The reason there are no cruise ships in our domestic fleet is because 
of an archaic protectionist law known as the Passenger Services Act. 
The legislation was passed before the turn of the century and requires 
all cruise ships in the domestic service to be built in the United 
States.
  U.S. shipyards, however, have no interest in building these types of 
ships and are not competitive on the international market. In fact, the 
last one built in this country was the U.S.S. Independence in 1956.
  Things have gotten so bad that when Disney Corp. solicited over $1 
billion in contracts to build cruise ships in this country, not a 
single U.S. shipyard even bid on the project. Now those ships are being 
built in Italy, but they will be legally barred from servicing the 
domestic cruise market because of the Passenger Services Act.
  Mr. Speaker, this act no longer serves the interests of this country. 
It stifles maritime job creation and does nothing to promote domestic 
shipbuilding. Instead, it gives away the cruise market to our foreign 
competitors, whose customers are mostly Americans.
  To fix this problem I am introducing legislation today that will 
stimulate increased domestic cruise ship opportunities for the American 
cruising public. My legislation will allow three foreign-built cruise 
ships to participate in the U.S. domestic cruising market. These 
cruising vessels must still hire an American crew, pay U.S. taxes, and 
obey all U.S. environmental, labor, and safety regulations.
  Senator McCain has introduced the companion bill, S. 2507, and he 
expects the Senate Commerce Committee to take action on the bill this 
session.
  This legislation is absolutely necessary to help create a U.S. 
domestic ocean-going cruise industry and I would call upon my 
colleagues to support this bill.

                          ____________________