Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO Urges Rejection of Royce/Engel Amendment No. 55

The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO, which is composed of 23 international unions and 21 Port Maritime Councils across the United States and Canada, calls upon the House of Representatives to reject Amendment 55 sponsored by Representatives Royce and Engel to HR 1947, the FARMM Act, because it would kill thousands of American jobs and undermine a successful program that has worked for nearly 60 years. Amendment 55 would cripple the PL-480 Food for Peace Program, America’s premiere foreign aid program. The Royce/Engel amendment would effectively take 45% of PL-480’s already shrinking budgel and ship that money overseas with little accountability and no domestic benefit. Today, Food for Peace funding supports American farmers and American mariners by purchasing U.S crops and shipping them on American-citizen crewed U.S.-flag ships. READ ONLINE (PDF)