"Our very first Congress singled out the domestic U.S. Merchant Marine as essential to our economy and national defense..."
West Coast Sailors
On September 10, the House Transportation & Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Marine Transportation held a fact finding hearing on the "status of the merchant marine".
SUP-contracted Matson containership Manukai pulled off a difficult and daring rescue of three yachtsmen whose vessel was floundering in heavy seas while enroute to Honolulu
Crucial maritime programs and policies have been placed in crosshairs in Congress.
Two Senators introduced legislation to scuttle the Food for Peace program, despite the passage of the Farm Bill.
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on May 6, cut $20 million from the MSP.
The USNS Sisler is one of eight Watson-Class LMSRs awarded to SUP-contracted Pariot Contract Service by the Military Sealift Command.
President Obama signed a five-year authorization legislation known as the farm bill that keeps Food for Peace Title II largely intact.
President Obama signed an omnibus appropriations bill, on January 17, that covers the balance of fiscal year 2014 and includes full funding for the MS), as well as funding for other programs crucial to the U.S. maritime industry.
Among the Union's objectives is "to support a journal which shall voice the sentiments of the seafaring class, and through its columns seek to maintain the knowledge of and interest in maritime affairs." The first issue of the West Coast Sailors, in June of 1937, noted that "Common sense, fearlessly applied, brings success to a Union."