Cordero Pushes for Increased FMC Funding in House Testimony
The post-sequestration, Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 funding level of $22,839,425 for the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) forced six furlough days for agency employees and caused significant disruption to the agency’s legislative mandate of harmonizing regulation in international ocean shipping, testified FMC Chairman Mario Cordero before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on Oct. 29. Cordero requested Congress authorize the agency $25 million for FY 2014.
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“Restricting any increases in funding in the years ahead will reduce the agency to a level at which it will not be able to perform its core statutory duties,” said Cordero, pressing the need for the enhanced information technology resources the agency pursued prior to sequestration and government shutdown. “Enhanced information systems are essential to efficient identification and licensing of regulated entities and to information sharing with our counterparts at CBP and other federal agencies." The technology will also help prevent ocean transportation intermediaries and vessel operators from abusing and defrauding the shipping public, he added.
The increase in funding and information technology resources will enable the agency to better facilitate oceanborne foreign commerce business, valued at $930 billion annually, said Cordero. The agency’s primary objective is to increase, through efficient, fair and least restrictive regulation, U.S. exports and the greater shipping community, he added.
The agency is helped by a recently-updated agreement with CBP that enables sharing of data with the Automated Commercial Environment-International Trade Data System (see 13072413), said Cordero. The FMC also monitors agreements between ocean carriers and marine terminal operatives, in accordance with the Shipping Act of 1984 and the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998, he added. “Currently, the Commission is reviewing a filing of an agreement between the world’s three largest container carriers -- Maersk, CMA CGM, and MSC, the ‘P3 Alliance,’” said Cordero. “The P3 Alliance agreement will be subject to the review of not only the Commission, but also of regulators in important U.S. trading partners, the European Union and China.”
The FMC also intends to streamline its ocean transportation intermediaries (OTIs) licensing process (see 13053031), said Cordero, adding that the agency is currently reviewing comments on a notice it released to the public earlier this year.