[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H4586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NATIONAL MARITIME DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Garamendi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of an 
extraordinary group of people.
  Yesterday was National Maritime Day, and I rise to bring attention to 
the House legislation that I recently introduced, H.R. 5879, the World 
War II Merchant Marine Congressional Gold Medal. I hear the cheers from 
all of my colleagues here on the floor as they line up to support this 
piece of legislation.
  Last year, my colleague, Susan Brooks, my good Republican friend, 
introduced this legislation. I am grateful to her and to Congressman  
Don Young of Alaska for their support of this legislation this year. 
This bill has obvious bipartisan support and bicameral support. Senator 
Murkowski of Alaska is leading this bill in what some call the upper 
Chamber; we simply call it the Senate.
  During World War II, our Armed Forces relied upon the Merchant Marine 
to ferry supplies, cargo, manpower and womanpower into both theaters of 
operation: the Pacific and the Atlantic. They paid a heavy price for 
their service.
  The Merchant Marine casualty rate was the highest among all branches 
of the U.S. Armed Forces. An estimated 8,300 merchant mariners lost 
their life during the war, and around 12,000 were wounded. But these 
brave men and women, who put their lives on the line to sustain our 
Armed Forces, were not even given veteran status until 1988, much less 
public recognition for their invaluable service.
  Today, I am going to meet with a group of World War II Merchant 
Marine veterans: Charles Mills from Texas, age 97; Eugene Barner from 
Kansas, age 92; and Robert Weagant from Illinois, age 92. I will also 
be meeting with families of other veterans who are no longer with us. I 
am meeting them to hear firsthand their stories of bravery and peril in 
the service of our Armed Forces. They deserve the recognition of a 
Congressional Gold Medal, and that is precisely what this legislation 
will do.
  I urge all of the Members of this House and the Senate to give our 
Merchant Marine veterans and their families the honor they deserve.
  I will also be discussing with these gentlemen and their families a 
piece of legislation that we introduced the day before yesterday, we 
call it the Energizing the American Shipbuilding Industry--taking a 
small percentage of the oil and natural gas that we are now exporting 
and requiring that that be on American-built ships with American 
mariners, so that we can maintain the extraordinary tradition of 
bravery and service that the World War II mariners showed this Nation.
  If we are successful in passing this legislation, we will be building 
some 50 ships, or more, in our shipyards all across America, providing 
jobs in the upper Midwest, where they build the great engines for these 
ships: the pumps, the pipes, and the electronic systems. We would also 
be providing some 1,800 jobs for the next generation of mariners.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues not only to support the 
Congressional Gold Medal for the World War II mariners, but support our 
effort to create mariners for the next generation, which, hopefully, 
will not be a war but, if it is, we know that we can rely on them, just 
as we did in World War II.

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