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4 MAY 2016 FOGHORN PVA Members Take to the Hill Last month I had the privilege as PVAs President to lead our Associations delegation to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. during the PVA Annual Congressional Fly-In. I believe that I have participated in each and every PVA fly-in to date and each time I am more impressed than the last. I must admit that before my first fly-in I thought that participants in this annual PVA event would need far-reaching skills in government relations. After all I manage a ferry boat business and I am a licensed mariner not a professional lobbyist. I quickly found out that this couldnt be further from the truth. Actually I am exactly the type of person that Members of Congress want to hear from because I am respon- sible for running a small business. I learned that they are genuinely inter- ested in my thoughts and opinions about the issues affecting my business and the passenger vessel industry. This year PVAstaff arranged approxi- mately 25 meetings with Members of Congress and their staff in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. In attending these prear- ranged meetings we crisscrossed Capitol Hill to the re- spective office buildings of our federal legislators and as we did we passed by the Capitol building the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress multiple times. These buildings are truly impressive and cant really be appreci- ated until you see them first-hand. For those of you who dont already know PVAs Congressional Fly-in gives us an excellent opportunity to not only describe the U.S. passenger industry that we represent and its diverse vessel operations but it also allows us to focus attention on some of our industrys most important issues. During our fly-in we told Members of Congress and their staff about the passenger vessel industry in great detail. We expressed to them that PVAmembers are located in virtually every port in the United States. We told them that PVArepresents a wide array of passenger vessel operations from ferry boat operations both large and small to dinner boats and excursions vessels to whale watch vessels charter yachts and amphibious vehicles. We also stressed that PVA members carry more than 200 million passengers each year safely and securely and that PVA members are true professionals who work tirelessly to achieve excellence in their operations. We also took this opportunity to thank Members of Congress for their support this year when they rescinded the legislative requirement for a one-size-fits-all survival craft. As you know this was a major victory for PVA and it literally saved PVA members hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary expen- ditures. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi was instrumental in helping us with this important issue and PVA members stopped by person- ally to thank him for his support. Our PVA delega- tion also raised the red flag about the forthcoming regula- tory requirement to have passenger vessel operators maintain official logbooks. This is an unneces- sary record-keeping requirement as most of the information that would be required to be logged is already captured electronically through existing account- ing and other systems. While we are in the formative stages of managing this issue we nonetheless provided Members of Congress with a briefing and suggested legis- lative language that would repeal this regulatory require- ment. In addition we urged Congress to pass the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act VIDA which includes a permanent exemption for small passenger vesselsof 79 feet and lessfrom having to submit the Environmental Protection Agencys Vessel General Permit. Finally we pressed Congress to adequately fund the Coast Guards inspection mission as it is extremely important in the advancement of safety industry-wide. We LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Margo Marks LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 Front Louis Skrmetta Senator Roger Wicker of MississippiAndrew Sargis. Back Dave Anderson George Kampsta Eric Christensen.