- Washington
Happenings
Submitted
by Larry Innis, MMTA Washington Lobbyist
Washington is busy right now organizing its House and Senate
Committees, reviewing the President's proposed tax cut legislation,
and attempting to finalize the FY 2003 appropriations bills
for 10 federal departments. These important responsibilities
are being conducted under the vast umbrella of an impending
war with Iraq and the continuing concerns with terrorism.
However, the business of government also continues. For example,
new fuel standards (CAFÉ, or corporate average fuel economy)
for sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are being sought by senators
in both parties in an effort to raise fuel economy standards
to a level well above what the Bush administration has proposed
and well above the current 20.7 miles per gallon that MRAA
supports. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Dianne Feinstein
(D-California) introduced legislation the last week of January
that would require automakers to achieve 27.5 mpg by 2011.
The administration has suggested raising the current CAFÉ
standard for SUVs to 22.2 mpg by 2007. MRAA has been concerned
over significant increases in CAFÉ standards for light trucks
and SUVs, because these vehicles are the vehicles of choice
by recreational boaters to pull their boats. An increase to
an average of 27.5 mpg would effectively eliminate SUVs ability
to pull boats.
For the record, another issue of importance to marine retailers
is energy price stability and the availability of gasoline
and diesel fuel. The Bush administration's plan to open the
Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling to help
establish oil price stability suffered a major blow on Feb.
1 when six senators, John McCain (R-Arizona), Olympia Snow
and Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island),
Peter Fitzgerald (R-Illinois), and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) said
they opposed inserting language that would give oil companies
access to the refuge into a must-pass budget bill. MRAA supports
oil drilling in ANWR because of the importance of oil for
a vibrant boating experience and will continue to work on
insertion of this language in a potential Energy Bill.
In a meeting of boating and fishing organizations on January
24 in Washington, an agreement was finalized on the distribution
of federal funds for recreational boating safety, the construction
of boat access ramps, installation and maintenance of pump
out stations, sport fishing restoration, construction of boat
slips for transient boaters, and a boating and fishing outreach
program. This is a major $500 million per year federal program.
The next step till be to draft the legislation and present
it to key sponsors and committees in the House and Senate.
It is expected the reauthorization of Wallop-Breaux will be
included in the legislation that will ultimately reauthorize
the spending of federal money for highways probably later
this year.
According to the agreement, the boating safety grant program
will get $88 million in FY 2004, up from $59.5 now. In addition,
the program is expected to grow each year because the fund
disbursements are tied to the total revenue received from
the federal excise tax on motorboat gasoline and the 10% federal
tax on fishing equipment and import duties on boats, motors,
and fishing equipment. In addition, funds to pay for the boating
and fishing outreach program managed by the Recreational Boating
and Fishing Foundation would increase from $8 million per
year to $10 million under the agreement. The RBFF has produced
a very successful and well received national television ad
campaign promoting boating and fishing.
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