66 FOGHORN not a talking point. That is what our members in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Mackinaw tell me directly. The exchange I am proudest of came near the end of the roundtable, when Charian Ezell asked directly how operators who follow the law dif- ferentiate themselves from the ones cutting corners. I laid it out plainly. Our crews are trained. Our boats are inspected. Most passengers have no idea any of that matters until some- thing goes wrong. Illegal operators skip the licensing, skip the insurance, skip the safety gear, and some of them are running crimes ancillary to the il- legal charter itself: money laundering, narcotics, worse. I told the committee the fines these operators face get treat- ed as a cost of doing business, and that has to change. The response told me the message landed. Rear Admiral Compher backed it up from the Coast Guard’s side, calling illegal charters a safety issue and not just a fairness issue, and laying out how investigators, boarding teams, and the Department of Justice are starting to coordinate on it. When the person across the table and the person next to you are describing the same problem in the same words, you know you have put your finger on something real. I walked out of Rayburn feeling good about where PVA stands with this committee. But when Chairman Ezell and his colleagues picture domestic maritime safety, I want them to pictur- ing our members’ boats and our mem- bers’ crews, not just an organizational chart at Coast Guard headquarters. I believe that happened. The GAO study on illegal charters that PVA pushed to get authorized is still moving through the pipeline. When it lands, we intend to make sure it does not sit on a shelf. Testifying was one afternoon. Turning that af- ternoon, and the fly-in ask that led to it, into real enforcement authority and real resources for the Coast Guard’s safety mission is the work still ahead of us, and I plan to keep showing up in that room until it gets done. We were reminded of the grave im- portance of this task recently when an illegal charter in New York capsized leading to the death of a woman and child. The scourge of these bad actors and the tools to fight them are of the utmost importance to the Coast Guard’s Safety and Prevention Mis- sions, and PVA will never stop advo- cating for these missions. Sincerely, Andrew Sargis PVA President, 2026 Continued from page 4: Letter from the President AT THE HELM ALLAMERICANMARINE.COM At All American Marine, we push the boundaries of passenger vessel design and performance. From advanced hull forms to next-gen hybrid propulsion, every vessel is custom-engineered for efficiency, reliability, and long-term performance. Proven on the water and trusted by repeat operators from coast to coast. Scan to see how we’re shaping the future of passenger vessels.
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