Help needed from STORIS Vets, Supporters to get Senate language in MARAD Bill

Attention all hands, now hear this… 

The Senate Commerce Committee - Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security Subcommittee will be marking up S 2829, the Maritime Administration Authorization Bill, next Wednesday. The hearing notice with a link to the legislation is posted on the Senate Web site at: http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=90D190CE-43C3-4262-A648-475589141E5D 

We are hoping that the language of the STORIS Act legislation (S 1511) can be incorporated into the MARAD Bill. The STORIS Act, as standalone legislation, has been stalled by the legislative quagmire that is Washington, DC. Incorporating the STORIS Act language in the MARAD Bill can get this moving. I am certain that various factions within the Federal Government – particularly those aligned with and friendly to MARAD – are against this legislation moving forward. I am sure like most roaches, they are afraid of what the sunlight cast on their actions by the proposed (and much-needed Government Accountability Office audit of MARAD) will reveal. The DOT IG report on MARAD’s Management Controls released in December 2015 has already identified problems with MARAD's oversight of government vessel disposal, including specific reference to the STORIS sale by GSA. That IG review was much smaller in scale and scope. We need to go bigger. We need answers and accountability. 

The Maritime Heritage Grant Funding is important and I think we all support those efforts to provide funding for our Maritime Heritage resources across the country, but there are already dozens of museums across the U.S. throwing their direct support behind the grant aspects of the legislation. 

WE NEED TO SPEAK UP FOR STORIS AS NO ONE ELSE CAN SPEAK FOR HER LIKE WE CAN!!! 

I am hoping that STORIS Vets and supporters can reach out to the various legislators on this committee and ask that they support the inclusion of the STORIS Act legislation in the MARAD Bill. Several STORIS Vets answered my call a few weeks ago to reach out to key legislators on this panel, particularly Maria Cantwell in Washington State and Dan Sullivan in Alaska. So far, I have not heard that any response was heard from these legislators’ offices. Sullivan in particular is disappointing since STORIS had such strong ties to Alaska. You would think that it would be a no-brainer. 

I am respectfully asking those STORIS Vets to reach out again, by phone if possible, to get this legislation included in the MARAD bill. I am also asking others to join us in this effort. We need everyone on board. 

Louisiana Senators David Vitter and Bill Cassidy, the sponsors of S 1511, have submitted an official letter to the Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer (R) of Nebraska and Ranking Member Corey Booker (D) of New Jersey, asking for their support. The letter is here: https://goo.gl/sTHvos 

Now keep in mind that we fully intended to save STORIS for historic preservation. She should not have been offered for dismantling, let alone scrapped in Mexico in violation of Federal Law. The Louisiana Senators see the export of STORIS to Mexico as a direct strike against the ship recycling facilities located in their state and the men and women who work at those yards. Though we did not want to see STORIS scrapped anywhere, their perspective is directed on behalf of the represented parties from Louisiana when they say that STORIS should have been scrapped domestically. Since they are willing to promote the STORIS Act and associated scrutiny of the government agencies and bureaucrats who are directly responsible for the destruction of STO, the efforts of Senators Vitter and Cassidy satisfy our goals, as well. These efforts also include the activity in the House with HR 2876, sponsored by Congressman Garret Graves of Louisiana, co-sponsored by Congressman Duncan Hunter (California), Congressman Filemon Vela (Texas), Congressman Charles Boustany (Louisiana), Congressman Robert Brady (Pennsylvania), Congressman Al Green (Texas) and Congressman Don Young (Alaska). 

The excessing and disposition process for STORIS was flawed on so many levels. At last count, there were something like five federal laws broken with her sale and export. Several agencies including the GSA, USCG, MARAD and EPA are complicit in this crime against history. We need answers. I need your help. For STORIS. 

Use this Web site to find the appropriate contact information for the legislators on the committee. Help me speak up for STORIS. http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ 

Republicans Deb Fischer, Chair, Nebraska 

Roger Wicker, Mississippi 

Roy Blunt, Missouri 

Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire 

Jerry Moran, Kansas 

Dan Sullivan, Alaska 

Ron Johnson, Wisconsin 

Dean Heller, Nevada 

Steve Daines, Montana 

Democrats 

Cory Booker, Ranking, New Jersey 

Maria Cantwell, Washington 

Claire McCaskill, Missouri 

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota 

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut 

Brian Schatz, Hawaii 

Edward Markey, Massachusetts 

Tom Udall, New Mexico 

If anyone has any questions or needs assistance in finding contact information, send me an email at cgcstorisqueen AT gmail.com. 

Thank you.

Customs/Border Protection continues government runaround for STORIS records

The government runaround continues. As posted on March 2, the U.S. Treasury claims that it has no record within its departments of where the foreign money came from to buy STORIS. We know through released correspondence between the buyer, Mark Jurisich of U.S. Metals Recovery, LLC, and GSA that the buyer required a foreign wire of $50,100 to complete the purchase of the ship. The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and the PATRIOT Act of 2001 require the identification of the source for any foreign wire transfers of more than $10,000. GSA sent me to Treasury saying it had no record of where the purchase money came from.

Treasury has now sent me to the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection. The FOIAs that I have already sent to the Coast Guard that are currently under appeal would already encompass any financial disclosure paperwork if CG had such documentation in its possession. So I sent a FOIA to CBP early Wednesday morning. That FOIA is confirmed as received but as of Thursday afternoon, I was notified that my CBP FOIA has been transferred to the Office of Air and Marine within CBP.

This shows how ludicrous that this circus has become with the Federal Government, as OAM deals with drug interdiction efforts and illegal alien interception not administrative transfers of ship ownership.

So we keep digging while we wait for some stupid bureaucratic answer of "we don't have any records..."

STORIS problem cited in Senate hearing

The hearing for the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security Subcommittee "The State of the U.S. Maritime Industry: The Federal Role" was held this afternoon in Washington.

Our efforts to write letters to the Senators on the committee were successful in that we were able to put this issue in front of their staffs. While the specific STORIS Act legislation did not come up for discussion in the hearing, Mr. Mitch Behm, Assistant Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation, referred specifically to the problematic disposition of STORIS by the Coast Guard and MARAD in the hearing during his testimony. Though the ship was not identified specifically by name, there is no other ship that he could have been discussing under these circumstances.

The whole hearing is here: https://t.co/bqze2YEg1b

Mr. Behm's prepared remarks are here: 
http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/7b4ef61e-e55e-4616-97a0-eb6f26fd59f3/A3B409D8C4F9664CE6692260A6950A83.mitchell-behm-testimony.pdf

STORIS is referred to on page 6.

We will continue to reach out to the various members of Congress who can act on this matter so that we can get this legislation passed in STORIS' name. I will keep everyone updated as this continues to move forward.

And special thanks to those who helped put together letters for this specific hearing on short notice. You did make a difference as without our input, STORIS would not have been mentioned in the DOT IG report.

Mar-Ex Op-Ed: Transparency in ship sales needed after STORIS sale, Treasury FOIA response

Maritime Executive Magazine has published another op-ed piece related to the convoluted and totally broken program in place for disposal of U.S. Government vessels, the poster girl for which STORIS has become.

This is in response to the FOIA response from the U.S. Treasury where that agency claims it has no record of the source of foreign funds used to purchase the vessel from the GSA.

http://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/transparency-needed-in-government-ship-sales

U.S. Treasury responds to FOIA, says agency has no STORIS records

As of Feb 26 -- last Friday -- I have already received a response from the US Department of Treasury for the FOIA I submitted on Feb 18 (see below). Treasury claims that it has no record of anything related to the STORIS Auction through GSA. This, after GSA claims that it has no records of where the foreign funding came from to purchase the ship. We know from correspondence between the buyer, Mark Jurisich of U.S. Metals Recovery, and GSA that the buyer required a foreign wire transfer of $50,100 to complete the purchase. The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and the PATRIOT Act of 2001 require the identification of foreign wire transfers in excess of $10,000. It looks like we may be able to add these two laws to the list of those broken by the federal government with the excessing, sale and illegal export of STORIS.

Treasury questions why I am asking them, based on my claim that GSA referred me to their department. It's right there, in black and white, in the GSA letter posted Feb 15. Treasury is instead recommending that I contact the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs to seek records. Anything along those lines would have shown up in the Coast Guard FOIAs I've already submitted. I'm waiting to see if I should FOIA Customs, but it's not even clear at this point why that agency would even be involved with the direct financial transaction of the ship's purchase.

The response from the Treasury is here: https://goo.gl/VfKj1t

We also have the outstanding FOIA with the State Department submitted Jan 15, 2015. I sent a request for an update on Feb 18 and received a response email from State on Feb 23. The response is as follows:

"We have contacted the Case Analyst and requested an estimated completion date for your case. The Analyst will contact the bureaus doing the searches and the individuals reviewing the material. This will take some time because each case is different. The search and review time varies. The time depends on the complexity of information requested and the time it takes to review the material."

With all of the political maneuvering within the State Department to protect and cover its own interests and those of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staffers with their illegal email activities, don't hold your breath to hear from State anytime soon.

Does anyone in our federal bureaucracy really know what the hell they are doing? It's nothing but a huge brush off and runaround.

Mar-Ex mag publishes op-ed re STORIS, GSA AND MARAD

A new op-ed piece has been published in Maritime Executive magazine related to STORIS and her disgusting disposal by the Federal Government. It encompasses the recent GSA FOIA response and MARAD's minimal involvement beyond serving as physical custodians of the ship while she was on museum hold. This is discussed within the larger context of ship recycling. 

As we have discussed, GSA should never have been involved with the disposition of STORIS. Several federal laws have been broken. There needs to be change and there has to be accountability and consequences. 

I will be posting an extensive response to the piece later. In the meantime, I would encourage STORIS Vets and supporters to pipe up and post how their feelings about what GSA bureaucrats did with the ship, following their ignorance, arrogance and incompetence. They showed no consideration whatsoever for the accomplishments or historical significance of that ship. It's an insult to STORIS, her Veterans, to the United States Coast Guard (even though USCG is complicit, too), US Maritime Heritage, and the entire country, considering what that magnificent ship and all of her Veterans did for this country. 

This is more proof of why we need to support passage of the STORIS Act legislation. Several Vets have sent me letters. Join us. Send me your Zip Code +4 numbers and I'll send you a customized template to send to your legislators. We need to speak up for STORIS. 

http://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/marad-following-maersks-lead-on-ship-recycling

Send me email at cgcstorisqueen@gmail.com. 

GSA responds to FOIA appeal, claims it has no information

GSA has responded to the appeal of their final FOIA release. This release was posted here on January 27.  The FOIA is referred to belonging to Danielle Ivory of the New York Times. This is because this FOIA, as originally assigned through my request, was to have been billed to me at $10,266 to find answers to what happened to STORIS. GSA officials do not believe that the information and circumstances surrounding the illegal sale and illegal export of STORIS are in the public interest. It was only because Ms. Ivory began collecting information related to STORIS and submitted an identical FOIA that GSA waived the outrageous fees.

The response is here: https://goo.gl/YR7V2Q

Not surprisingly, as far as the appeal, GSA claims that it has no information related to the points that I made. Same old song and dance. Liars right to the end.

GSA officials claim they have no further information related to the source of the funding used to purchase the ship. The buyer, Mark Jurisich of U.S. Metals Recovery of San Diego, recorded online as a “used car dealer” with a suspended California business license, paid $20,000 up front to register to bid on the ship. The buyer did not have the $50,100 balance and he indicated that he was waiting for the rest of the money from “his people” and the remainder had to be paid, he said in correspondence received through FOIA, by using a foreign wire transfer. According to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and the Patriot Act of 2001, the sources of all foreign wire transfers of more than $10,000 have to be reported to the federal government. GSA claims it has no record of the money source, that the funds were transferred directly to the U.S. Treasury. One would think that GSA would alert the Treasury or the buyer to the situation related to the foreign money source, but that would mean following the law.

The response also indicates that GSA had no further record of any correspondence between Curt Michanzyk, the obsolete ship sales representative for MARAD and Heather Bischoff of GSA. Michanzyk sent an email on July 2, 2013 asking for details about the sale of STORIS. According to GSA, they won’t discuss details of a sale with anyone but the buyer of a vessel. 

Hate to break it to GSA, but federal law dictates that the U.S. Maritime Administration is THE agency responsible for disposal of U.S. Government vessels. But ethics don't mean anything to GSA, so why should the law?

GSA claims they have no record of how their officials knew the ship was to be scrapped as they do not require the buyer to tell them. Yet Heather Bischoff and Tonya Dillard knew that STORIS was purchased for scrapping. But GSA also states they have no records that indicate STORIS was restricted to domestic scrapping only and that there were no restrictions found that the ship was bound by the International Trade in Arms treaty. This is totally contrary to Section 3502 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of 2009 which requires that former U.S. Government ships are to be scrapped domestically. This also flies in the face of the correspondence stream that we received that shows the buyer, Jurisich, was in discussion with the State Department because a waiver was required for the ship’s export to Mexico since she was considered a warship by the State Department. That's two federal laws right there in question, but who's counting?

A FOIA request to State was denied for expedited fulfillment and it is presumed that that agency is too busy trying to cover and hide FOIAs for the illegal activities of its staff and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to respond to my request related to STORIS. They might just follow the company line: "What difference does it make?" 

Apparently laws are for the little people to follow, not the feds. If I tried to illegally scrap a ship, EPA and the government would fine me into the ground. EPA, meanwhile, likes to flood rivers with heavy metal-contaminated mine water with no consequence to itself, so there again...

GSA’s last point claims that they do not require secure approval from owning agencies in order to accept bids lower than the set reserve. We know now that the secret reserve price for STORIS was $100K. GSA had a bid of $70,100 and Tonya Dillard of GSA sent an email the morning after the auction closed to Jeff Beach, manager of retired boats and cutters to ask if the standing bid was okay to accept from the CG’s perspective. If GSA doesn’t require permission, why did Dillard ask? Why? And where is the response? GSA is wholly dishonest. But no surprise there.

The response from GSA then lectures on where the particulars to  answer my apparently (in their mind) misguided question are found. Smoke and mirrors, distract and deny. It's the GSA way,  the government way. This is the Obama Administration, the most transparent government in history.

In short, smokescreen and lies. It’s nothing that we wouldn’t already expect from a corrupt bureaucratic agency. GSA Officials lied from Day One when Jim Loback of the STORIS Museum made contact with GSA in a good faith effort to save STORIS for posterity and preservation. GSA said one thing, did another, and cut corners everywhere possible to get rid of the ship as soon as possible with absolutely no consideration whatsoever for her history and the service and sacrifices she and her crews gave to this country.

There is no excuse for what these worthless GSA bureaucrats did, and even for them to claim “they didn’t know” in the case of the export violation, there is no excuse. This is especially true with them shutting MARAD out of the transaction. Additionally, as identified by the DOT Inspector General Report of Dec. 10, 2015, MARAD did not step in for an advisory or regulatory capacity. The process is broken and we lost STORIS as a result. 

But there is no excuse. 

“Ignorantia juris non excusat  … ignorance of law is not an excuse to a criminal charge.”

Many will agree that the people responsible SHOULD be punished. STORIS is gone, destroyed, thanks to these ignorant, arrogant bureaucrats. The GSA officials responsible for this broke the law. 

Will anything happen? Hard to say, but one can only hope. We need to speak up and be heard for STORIS.