Huge news. This is a very
important read and something that has been taking shape for the past several
weeks. I’ve asked that everyone stand by for something big coming and today is
the day. It’s time for STORIS vets and supporters to stand up and be heard.
Please share this with your families, shipmates, friends, colleagues, etc. We
need all hands on deck for this one.
Yesterday, June 4, U.S. Senators David Vitter (R-La.) and Bill Cassidy
(R-La.) introduced Senate Bill S 1511, the Ships to Be Recycled in the States
(STORIS) Act. This legislation is intended to reform the domestic marine
recycling industry. Their legislation would improve the domestic ship recycling
industry and promote transparency by requiring reports from the U.S. Maritime
Administration (MARAD) and an audit of MARAD by the Government Accountability
Office (GAO). Congressman Garret Graves (R-La.) is introducing the companion
legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The media release is here:http://www.vitter.senate.gov/newsroom/press/vitter-cassidy-graves-introduce-legislation-to-improve-ship-recycling-create-jobs
The legislation can be
tracked here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1511
You will remember that a
version of the STORIS Act was being considered last year for introduction by
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska). That effort came to a halt before the legislation
could be introduced when Senator Begich lost his bid for re-election. However,
other legislators took up the mantle and have moved forward with it,
culminating in yesterday’s introduction. Last fall, the Facebook posting
sharing the original STORIS Act discussion reached almost 7,800 people. Again,
we need to share this post with everyone who has an interest in STORIS to
mobilize and speak up for the ship and her disrespectful disposal at the hands
of the government that she so faithfully served.
For the past several weeks,
I’ve been assisting with providing information about the ship and her
undeserved fate to the legislators involved. I provided a written statement of
support on behalf and as a member of the STORIS Working Group, the legal
partnership formed between the STORIS Museum of Juneau and The Last Patrol
Museum of Toledo. Various Maritime Heritage sites from across the country have
also written letters of support for the legislation. And now here we are.
A draft of the STORIS Act,
as introduced, is here: https://goo.gl/GqpYGs
In general, this legislation
seeks to reform administrative procedures at the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Like the version discussed last fall, key provisions of this legislation will
seek to free up designated funding for U.S. Maritime Heritage sites/facilities
across the country as well as state maritime academies. The money is generated
through the sales of obsolete MARAD/government vessels and a percentage is to
be used for competitive grant funding for these maritime heritage and education
organizations. In recent years, MARAD has been hoarding the money, holding back
substantial amounts that should be going out as grants even as the various
museums and heritage resources struggle to find funds to maintain their
operations.
Some of the earlier language
from the initial proposed legislation has been changed to make the legislation
more likely to pass. New language that will be beneficial to the efforts to
seek answers for STORIS has been added, a bonus for us.
This extremely important
part of the legislation calls for an audit of MARAD’s ship recycling program by
the GAO. As indicated in the introduction to the media release, there are
serious questions about how the Maritime Administration has been operating in
terms of its disposal of obsolete government vessels. We now know that GSA
should never have been involved with the excessing and disposal of STORIS as
that should have been MARAD’s duty under 40 USC 548 because STORIS displaced
more than 1,500 tons. We also know that it was illegal to export STORIS to Mexico for scrapping because of Section 3502 of the Duncan
Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of 2009, which prohibits the
scrapping of former U.S. Government vessels in foreign scrapyards.
Similar audit language was
included in the En Bloc Amendments to the CG Authorization Bill, HR 1987.
The emails I have received
from MARAD through the Freedom of Information Act show that MARAD officials
expressed skepticism in the days before STORIS’ departure that the ship was
free of PCBs as the Coast Guard and GSA claimed. Yet these MARAD officials did
nothing to stop the sequence of events taking place, despite knowing STORIS was
of WWII vintage, making it highly likely she contained regulated materials.
They did nothing and released her for export to Mexico for breaking in a substandard yard.
MARAD officials claim that
they were just holding STORIS as a “custody ship,” that the responsibility lay
elsewhere. However, as the agency charged with overseeing our nation’s maritime
fleet, MARAD officials knew better than to allow this situation to take place.
That MARAD did not step up to assume its proper role as the rightful agency to
handle STORIS’ disposition while allowing the ship to be exported in violation
of federal laws raises serious questions about these administrators. There have
also been irregularities with MARAD administrators awarding obsolete vessels to
ship recycling facilities that did not submit the highest bids. The sums of
money involved have exceeded hundreds of thousands of dollars per ship. All
that money adds up and it is not a “best value” practice in the best interests
for U.S. taxpayers.
This audit is meant to be
comprehensive to encompass all of these issues. There is language specifically
calling out the review of MARAD agreements with the Coast Guard, GSA,
Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency and other government
agencies for compliance with Section 3502 of the Duncan Hunter NDAA. This will
bring the issues with STORIS and her illegal export directly onto the table.
The issues with the undocumented materials that likely contained PCBs exported
illegally in spite of the PCB Export Ban of the Toxic Substances Control Act of
1976 should also come out as part of that discussion.
In addition to STORIS, the
language should encompass what happened with ACUSHNET and her sale through an
improper GSA auction, despite her tonnage exceeding 40 USC 548 guidelines. She
then became the central component of a federal criminal case since the buyer
reportedly swindled a wealthy widow for the money to buy the ship. Then there’s
GLACIER, which was sold for scrap by MARAD despite efforts and substantial
investment in money, time, labor and parts by a nonprofit group to preserve her
as a museum. I’ll be reaching out to veterans of these cutters to seek their
support for this legislation, as well. We all deserve answers and these great
ships certainly deserved better than what they received at the hands of the
federal bureaucracy.
I submitted Freedom of
Information Act requests to the four agencies involved with STORIS’ export on
Nov. 4, 2013, right after she was allowed to leave the country (to USCG, GSA,
MARAD, EPA). It’s been over a year and a half and the agencies involved still
have not fully complied. Coast Guard and GSA will be handled separately.
However, MARAD was to have responded to my final FOIA appeal by Feb. 9, 2015 and they have not done so as of this writing. MARAD
officials might be able to stall me with delays and redactions, but they cannot
stall the GAO. MARAD has to show GAO officials ALL their cards and there is no
holding back or hiding.
It is conceivable that, as
details come out through the MARAD audit, there could be some deeper
examinations into these other agencies by GAO or other authorities to see how
this disgraceful situation occurred with STORIS. It's pretty clear from what
we've been able to glean from the sparse FOIA releases we HAVE received that
there were a lot of faulty and improper decisions made across the board with
all the agencies involved. This is especially true with the collusion between
GSA and USCG to get rid of the ship ASAP with no consideration for the ship's
history and other factors like the obvious violation of several federal laws.
Read about the GAO here:
http://www.gao.gov/about/index.html. The
agency is a nonpartisan “congressional watchdog” that investigates how the
federal government spends taxpayer dollars. They also monitor compliance with
federal laws and procedures.
The introduction through the
legislators in Louisiana ties to MARAD ship sales, which directly impacts
ship recycling facilities and jobs in that state as well as neighboring Texas. The STORIS Act is meant to create jobs by ensuring
that all vessels can be dismantled in the United States in compliance with U.S. environmental and safety laws, and are not exported
where those safety rules do not apply. That would include the substandard yard
in Ensenada, Mexico, where STORIS met her fate.
Key language in the media
release announcing the introduction and origin of the STORIS Act is the
following: “The STORIS Act is named in recognition of the former Coast Guard Cutter
STORIS, which was dismantled in Mexico in 2013 in violation of the current law.”
The acknowledgement of
STORIS’ export and scrapping as illegal is a tremendous step, as we now have
three Federal legislators – two senators and a congressman – publicly stating
that her export and scrapping in Mexico was illegal. This is a great opportunity to get
STORIS and her fate out into the open for discussion at all levels, from the
street to DC.
It’s already starting to be
publicized: http://www.maritimeprofessional.com/news/legislation-targets-ship-recycling-reform-272420
We need STORIS supporters to
reach out to their members of Congress to ask that they support this
legislation. There are several key questions that this legislation will answer.
We want and deserve truthful responses as to how STORIS was allowed to be
destroyed. This legislation can hopefully help us get some of those answers.
Contact information for
Congress is here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
A draft letter asking for
Congressional support is here: https://goo.gl/lChSuL. Modify it, use excerpts
or do whatever works to fit your needs and send it out. The letter contains the
basics to which STORIS supporters can add their personalized touches to appeal
to Congress while also expressing their concerns about how STORIS was allowed
to be destroyed.
Let’s do this, for STORIS as
she did for over 64 years, with Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty.
If anyone has any questions,
don’t hesitate to drop me a line at cgcstorisqueen@gmail.com
Semper Paratus!
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