Chuck Grassley: “Also, in rebuttal to the Senator from Alaska on another point he was making about foreign flags not doing the jobs…”

“Also, in rebuttal to the Senator from Alaska on another point he was making about foreign flags not doing the jobs, foreign crews not doing the job, as a studied response to that, I want to have printed in the Record a chart that tells a number of trips to the Persian Gulf. This shows that, in fact, only 17 U.S.-flag commercial vessels actually delivered goods in the war zone. This chart was provided by the military sealift command. I did not put these figures together; I got them from the military sealift command. Only five APL vessels--these are U.S. flags--went into the war zone; only three sea-land U.S.-flag vessels went into the war zone; only four watermen, and their U.S.-flag vessels went into the war zone; only five Lykes U.S.-flag vessels went into the war zone; total--total, only 17 U.S.- flag vessels delivered goods into the war zone. That is 17 compared to 500 trips into the war zone, so that means overwhelmingly--I hope you understand, overwhelmingly--17 trips versus 500 trips, U.S. The remaining were foreign flag, foreign crew.”