Ed Whitfield: “I want to take this opportunity to thank those Members who have decided to revisit this very important issue. I might…”

“I want to take this opportunity to thank those Members who have decided to revisit this very important issue. I might remind everyone that the Delta Queen received an exemption from the Safety of Life at Sea Law. And we recognized that that original law applied to oceangoing vessels and, since 1968, Congress has always provided the exemption for the Delta Queen, except that it did not in the year 2008. Since then, the Delta Queen has been sitting down in Chattanooga. The new owners are spending $10 million to put in new boilers. There's a sprinkler system and, as has already been indicated, the Coast Guard will make the final decision about the safety issues. But this is an issue of jobs. And I might say that the unemployment rate in America over the last 4 years, in each of the last 4 years, has been higher than in any year in the last 62, except for 3 years. So in communities like Paducah, Kentucky, that I happen to represent, the Delta Queen each year would land at Paducah. Every month it would come by, people would get out, and it was an economic boon to our area. We genuinely believe that this is a balanced approach. It protects the safety issues that people are concerned about because of the $10 million being spent to refurbish the Delta Queen, and it provides additional employment for people looking for good jobs. So I would urge every Member to support H.R.…”