Haley Stevens: “Unfortunately, the amendment that the Senator from Iowa has offered deals with another situation. Under this bill before…”

“Unfortunately, the amendment that the Senator from Iowa has offered deals with another situation. Under this bill before the Senate, the U.S. Government will pay a flat fee for the use of the vessel fully crewed. What the shipowners pay the crew is a private matter. It will not affect the payment at all. As I said in my opening statement, the problem with the Persian Gulf, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, was we had to go to get foreign shipping. And in most instances, the premiums extracted were 50 percent of the total cost, not just the crew cost. In some instances, it was double the charter price. In spite of that, crews refused to enter the war zone. Now, the Senator's amendment deals with something that happened in the past, which would not be the situation in the future with regard to this bill. But even with regard to what happened under Desert Shield/ Desert Storm, I think the Senator forgets that we recovered the cost of our participation in that crisis, that war, from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This wasn't taxpayer cost that the Senator was talking about at all.”