Funding for America's Maritime Heritage: Rounding the Bases by Timothy J. Runyan, Chair, National Maritime Alliance
T
he maritime heritage community recently won congressional support to restore the National Maritime Heritage Act grant program. That is the important takeaway message from our advocacy efforts of the past several years. Funding for the grant program comes from the recycling of ships by the Maritime Administration (MARAD). Our language to restore the grant program, created with the passage of the National Maritime Heritage Act of 1994 (16 USC 5401), is included in Section 3508 of HR 4909, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2017. We are thankful for the assistance of many members of the US House of Representatives, including Representatives J. Randy Forbes (VA), Garret Graves (LA), Donald Norcross (NJ), and the backing of many others, but the language in the House bill still has to be accepted by the Senate. Our supporters there include Senators Deb Fischer (NE), Roger Wicker (MS), Bill Nelson (FL), Cory Booker (NJ), and others. The opportunity for the Senate to accept the House language on the bill will come during the conference of the two houses to iron out their differences in November. The national defense bill is huge, and controversial. A conference held in summer 2016 worked on the bill, but it was not passed before the recess for the November elec-
tions. As this issue of Sea Histo ry goes to press, Congress will be reconvening on 15 November 2016 to take up spending billswith a new president-elect. Civics issues aside, we know that our advocacy work must continue so that we achieve the restoration of the grant program with full funding. We have learned some hard lessons about what happens when we ease up on this effort. The 1994 Act was indeed a monumental achievement for the maritime heritage community. However, the funding for the grants program-so critical to keeping many of our local and national maritime programs and structures afloat-was virtually stripped away fifteen
years later. That is when the MARAD submitted language to Congress to amend the National Maritime Heritage Act. We worked hard to stop this action, but it was too late. An amendment to the National Maritime Heritage Act was included in the 2010 NDAA placing control of the funds for maritime heritage grants from ship scrapping in the hands of the MARAD administrator. Pressure generated by our supporters in Congress in recent years resulted in MARAD's 2013 pledge of $7 million for the grant program. The funds are transferred to the National Park Service (NPS), the agency charged with administering the grant program. The NPS awarded
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(a bove) Youth Diving With a Purpose (YDWP) members, Julian Perez and Olivia Ferenczy from New York, work on their trilateration sheets far a shipwreck site at Biscayne National Park in Florida. Perez is now a student at Texas A & M Maritime Academy. (Left) Three students from YDWP document the shipwreck in situ, as part oftheir training. This opportunity was funded in part by a National Maritime Heritage Act grant. Diving With a Purpose is a community-focused non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation and protection ofunderwater heritage resources that started in partnership with the National Association ofBlack Scuba Divers. It has trained hundreds ofyoung people and adults to dive and participate in underwater research.
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SEA HISTORY 157, WINTER2016- 17