Haley Stevens: “the bill before us sets up a prospect of having the merchant marine available to the United States in the event of…”

“the bill before us sets up a prospect of having the merchant marine available to the United States in the event of emergency on a daily charge basis. The taxpayers will not pay any more regardless of the contract between the seafarers and their employer, the operator of the vessel. This is a new approach. The Senator from Iowa is mistaken. The funds that were paid for those ships that were in the Persian Gulf were not taxpayer dollars. They were dollars provided by our Persian Gulf allies. In any event, we are trying to change that. I say to my friend from Iowa that these people are not in the military. They are civilians. They are not subject to the control of the Federal Government. Their salaries are not in the control of the Federal Government. The Constitution prevents what the Senator from Iowa wants to do, and that is for Congress to legislate an amendment to a private contract between the seafarers and their employers. I have to say that, if this is the Taxpayers Union provision, as the Senator from Iowa said, someone has misinformed that organization because this bill has nothing to do with payment to the people who man these ships. That is between the employer and the employee. It is not a Government affair. As I said last night, our alternative is to once again try to contract with foreign ships to provide us vessels to carry our goods to supply our men and women in the field in times of crisis. In the last Persian Gulf crisis we did that.”