The Obama Administration’s budget proposal includes the full $186 million for the Maritime Security Program (MSP) needed to ensure the continued operation of the 60-ship U.S.-flag maritime security fleet for fiscal year 2015. In its message to Congress, the Administration reaffirms that the “purpose of the program is to establish and sustain a fleet of active ships that are privately owned, commercially viable, and militarily useful to meet national defense and other emergency sealift requirements. Participating operators are required to make their ships and commercial transportation resources available upon request by the Secretary of Defense . . . [including] ships, logistics management services, port terminal facilities, and U.S. citizen mariners to crew both commercial and government-owned merchant ships.” Providing the funds requested by the Administration guarantees that the Department of Defense and the American people will continue to have access to the commercial sealift provided by the Maritime Security Program, thereby strengthening our country’s national security readiness capability at a fraction of what it would cost the American taxpayer if the government had to provide this capability itself without the partnership it presently has with the private maritime industry.
As part of the strategy to ensure that full FY’15 funding for the MSP is available, leading Members of Congress are urging the Appropriations Committees in the House of Representatives and Senate to approve the President’s request. The effort in the House is being led by Congressmen Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Adam Smith (D-CA), the Chairman and Ranking Member on the Armed Services Committee, and in the Senate, by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ranking Member on the Merchant Marine Subcommittee.