Tom Harkin: “I have been generally supportive of the practice of shipping a certain percentage of our U.S. foreign food assistance on…”

“I have been generally supportive of the practice of shipping a certain percentage of our U.S. foreign food assistance on U.S.-flag ships. I have in the past supported amendments designed to reform that program to ensure the costs of using the U.S.- flag ships are reasonable. But I have not been supportive of proposals that would essentially kill the policy of using U.S.-flag vessels, because I believe that U.S. maritime fleet ships are important to our national defense. I also believe that when we are providing largess to other countries, we should do all that we can to also support U.S. jobs and U.S. industries. After all, we make sure that U.S. farm commodities are used in these food shipments. We do not go to other countries to buy the food to give it away. We use our own farm commodities. As long as costs are fair and reasonable, I believe we ought to use U.S. ships to haul a share of this aid. My colleague from Iowa, Senator Grassley, says that I may be undercutting his efforts at reform. But my amendment is the only way to have real reform. What my amendment would do, is take any higher costs involved in using U.S.-flag ships out of USDA entirely and put it in the Department of Transportation. Senator Grassley's amendment would essentially kill our U.S. maritime industry by sending shipping business to foreign-flag vessels.”